One Point of View: Increased Time in School—Increased Learning?

The years 1983 and 1984 saw several publications aimed at arousing the public's conscience about the status of American education. The headliner among them was the often quoted accusation directed at ourselves, the American people: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.” (A Nation at Risk, National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 1983, p.5)

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Editorial

Journal for Research in Mathematics Education ◽

10.5951/jresematheduc.14.5.0306 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 306

Author(s):

Jeremy Kilpatrick

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Educational Reform ◽

American People ◽

National Commission ◽

Nation At Risk ◽

Educational Foundations ◽

A Nation At Risk ◽

Excellence In Education ◽

American Society

In April, the President's National Commission on Excellence in Education released its report, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, which portrayed the educational foundations of American society as “being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” According to the commission, “we have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.” As one of the commissioners has admitted, these apocalyptic words were intended tO grab the fickle attention of headline writers, and through them the American people, who are deemed unable to assimilate a serious message that lasts more than 30 seconds. (Although one might note that attention easily given is easily withdrawn.)

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A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform, by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Washington, DC: U.S. GPO, 1983, 65 pp. Price: $2.00

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management ◽

10.1002/pam.4050030216 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 308-308 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Educational Reform ◽

National Commission ◽

Washington Dc ◽

Nation At Risk ◽

A Nation At Risk ◽

Excellence In Education

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Merry White: The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children

The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville ◽

10.3138/ttr.9.1.413 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 413-417

Author(s):

Paul William Kingston

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Social Problems ◽

Work Force ◽

International Economy ◽

American Education ◽

American Mind ◽

Nation At Risk ◽

Educational Challenge ◽

American Schools ◽

A Nation At Risk

American education is in “crisis.” That was the message of numerous recent reports indicting American schools for woeful intellectual rigor and lax standards. And many accepted the related conclusion: we were a “nation at risk” beset by an unproductive work force and an inability to compete in the international economy. Indeed, discontent with schools seemed more to reflect a diffuse worry about America’s economic and moral vitality than any concern for intrinsically intellectual issues. As at other points in our history, larger social problems became defined as educational problems, and by the same token, were to be solved by education. The belief that schools are simultaneously the cause and solution to social problems has a mythic hold on the American mind.

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