Twenty five years ago A Nation at Risk sought to change the course of education in the United States. Today, while some gains have been made, there is still far to go to meet the challenges outlined in the 1983 report.
As one example, while 9 and 13-year-olds have made steady gains in math since the 1970s, reading scores for 9, 13, and 17-year-olds have remained essentially unchanged for over 20 years, according to long-term trend data for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card”.
In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) sought to draw attention to and remedy this stagnant achievement by requiring schools to disaggregate student achievement data to pinpoint which students were succeeding, and which needed additional help. Yet six years after NCLB was enacted, the achievement gap remains, and many of the “Indicators of Risk” documented in A Nation at Risk, such as the need for remedial education for some college students and low U.S. rankings on international comparison tests, are still present, prompting us to ponder the question: what have we missed?
The 1983 report itself answered that question when it stated,
Our society and its educational institutions seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectations and disciplined effort needed to attain them. … That we have compromised this commitment is, upon reflection, hardly surprising, given the multitude of often conflicting demands we have placed on our Nation’s schools and colleges. They are routinely called on to provide solutions to personal, social, and political problems that the home and other institutions either will not or cannot resolve. We must understand that these demands on our schools and colleges often exact an educational cost as well as a financial one.
Public schools have unfairly taken the blame for the ills of the society that surrounds them. Unless this changes, 25 years from now, we will be pondering the same question of why students are not always adequately prepared for the challenges that await them in college and the workforce. And by then, it may truly be too late.
There is reason to be hopeful however. By encouraging states to adopt national standards, Congress and the president can make significant inroads in the reform movement. By appointing an independent, diverse group of researchers, practitioners, advocates, and experts, to develop a set of common standards and authentic, reliable assessments beginning with Language Arts and mathematics in grades K-12, the federal government can help increase transparency in cross state comparisons while simultaneously providing more equal educational opportunities for all children.
As the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act looms, NASSP is hopeful that Congress, the president, states, advocacy groups, and educators will all work together to enact education reforms that build on the lessons learned from previous efforts, and which heed the warnings of A Nation at Risk so that all students are prepared to success in college and the 21st century workforce.
