A Nation at Risk
A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform is the 1983 report of the United States National Commission on Excellence in Education. Its publication is considered a landmark event in modern American educational history.[1] Among other things, the report contributed to the ever-growing assertion that American schools were failing, and it touched off a wave of local, state, and federal reform efforts.
Published
1983
National Commission on Excellence in Education
Formation and motivation[edit]
The commission consisted of 18 members, drawn from the private sector, government, and education. The chair of the commission was David Pierpont Gardner.[2] Secretary of Education Terrel Bell sought to have the president appoint the commission. Reagan disagreed and it was Bell who established the commission and appointed its members.[3]
As implied by the title of the report, the commission's charter responds to Terrel Bell's observation that the United States' educational system was failing to meet the national need for a competitive workforce. Yvonne Larsen, vice-chairman of the commission, and Gerald Holton, a member, have both stated that they were trying to confirm concerns they already had, rather than complete an objective analysis of the state of schools.[4] Among other things, the charter required the commission to assess the "quality of teaching and learning" at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels, in both the public and private spheres and to compare "American schools and colleges with those of other advanced nations." The report was primarily authored by James J. Harvey, who synthesized the feedback from the commission members. Harvey wrote, "the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a 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."[2]
Presidential commissions on education have been relatively common since the Truman Report in 1947. Other notable groups include Dwight Eisenhower's "Committee on Education Beyond the High School" in 1956, John F. Kennedy's Task Force on Education in 1960, and George W. Bush's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, also known as the Spellings Commission, which produced "A Test of Leadership" in 2006.
The report surveys various studies which point to academic underachievement on national and international scales. The report said that average SAT scores dropped "over 50 points" in the verbal section and "nearly 40 points" in the mathematics section, during the period 1963-1980. Nearly forty percent of 17-year-olds tested could not successfully "draw inferences from written material," and "only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay; and only one-third can solve a mathematics problem requiring several steps." Referencing tests conducted in the 1970s, the study points to unfavorable comparisons with students outside the United States: on "19 academic tests American students were never first or second and, in comparison with other industrialized nations, were last seven times".[2]
In response to these and similar problems, the commission made 38 recommendations, divided across 5 major categories: Content, Standards and Expectations, Time, Teaching, Leadership and Fiscal Support:[5]
Librarians Responded with "Libraries and the Learning Society"[edit]
In response to the National Commission on Excellence in Education Report, A Nation at Risk, the Department of Education Center for Libraries and Education Improvement, invited leaders in library and information science to a meeting in September 1983 to launch the project, "Libraries and the Learning Society."[14] Four seminars, held in different United States cities, examined how public libraries, academic libraries, library and information science training institutions, and school library media centers could best respond to A Nation at Risk. The fifth seminar dealt with ways in which libraries should come together to link their resources to help create a Learning Society.
