A Nation at Risk at 25

Abstract

THE SPRING when I graduated from high school brought fundamental change in the way Americans think about public education. In April of 1983, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform was unveiled. Terrel Bell, President Reagan's secretary of education, had been appointed to shut down the brand-new U.S. Department of Education, something he had little taste for. He felt he needed what he later called a Sputnik-like occurrence. (1) Instead of closing the doors and moving programs to other federal departments, he empaneled the National Commission on Excellence in Education to study available research and data on public school students and make recommendations to the President. When that report, A Nation at Risk, appeared, it did not do what President Reagan had hoped in terms of opening the door to prayer in school and school choice, but its fiery rhetoric did catch the attention of the national press, where it provoked national discussion about the quality and purpose of public education. The debate that began with A Nation at Risk can be organized into the four categories it defined as problematic: content, expectations, time, and teaching. Although leadership and fiscal support were not among the primary categories listed, the National Commission made number of recommendations on those fronts as well. Some argue that A Nation at Risk began an ongoing effort to eliminate the arts and vocational education from the curriculum, but the document itself actually calls for students to participate in range of courses. While John Slaughter, former director of the National Science Foundation, is quoted as worrying about the growing chasm betweena small scientific and technological elite and everybody else, the report notes that other experts were worried that schools may emphasize such rudiments as reading and computation at the expense of other essential skills such as comprehension, analysis, solving problems, and drawing conclusions. Still others are concerned that an over-emphasis on technical and occupational skills will leave little time for studying the arts and humanities that so enrich daily life, help maintain civility, and develop sense of community. Knowledge of the humanities, they maintain, must be harnessed to science and technology if the latter are to remain creative and humane, just as the humanities need to be informed by science and technology if they are to remain relevant to the human condition. (2) The Commission recommended four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of science, three years of social studies, and one-half school year of computer science for high school students. While this may seem like strict regimen, it is important to remember that it represents fewer than 14 credits out of typical 21 that students take for high school graduation. That would seem to leave some room for foreign language, music, and physical education. The Commission also recommended that students toward proficiency in foreign language starting in the elementary grades. While this recommendation is nowhere near being realized, it did mark first step in articulating our nation's need for multicultural understanding if we are to remain competitive in the global economy. STANDARDS AND EXPECTATIONS In their discussion of standards and expectations, the commissioners expressed concern over the intellectual, moral, and spiritual health of the American people. They understood that high level of shared education is required if our republic is to continue in any meaningful way. But they observed that, with the pervasive tendency toward minimum standards and expectations, that ideal would be difficult to attain. They called for more rigorous standards at all levels of schooling, and they made the now seemingly ubiquitous recommendations that four-year colleges raise admissions standards and that standardized tests of achievement be implemented at major transition points from one level of schooling to another and particularly from high school to college or work (p. …