Federal Report Fuels a Quarter-Century of Restructuring, and Controversy

Twenty-five years ago, the federal government report "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" launched an era of efforts to improve public schools that continues today.

The authors used combative language, starting with the title, to issue a call to action to elected officials and educators to set new academic standards and improve teacher quality. The report was the product of an 18-member panel assembled in 1981 by Terrel H. Bell, who was secretary of education at the time, to examine the public education system.

The report wasn't the first call for education reform, but it garnered unusual attention because of its plain language, which linked the future of the economy to public schooling, and because of the times in which it was delivered.

Ronald Reagan was president, and many newly resurgent conservatives wanted to eliminate the Department of Education, institute school vouchers and make other changes to the public education system. Some, including then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III, opposed the report because it made no mention of those issues. Others said many of its conclusions and recommendations were based on inaccurate data and hazy reasoning.

Still, the report fueled new interest in education reform, launched the standards movement and influenced the Bush administration's creation of the No Child Left Behind law.

Here are some key events related to school reform since "A Nation at Risk" was published:

· April 1983: "A Nation at Risk" warns that the country's future is threatened by its inadequate public education system. It recommends that all high school students be required to take four courses in English; three each in math, science and social studies; and a half-credit in computer science, with a foreign-language requirement for students heading to college.

"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," the report states.

And: "If an unfriendly 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."

Conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr. thought the report inadequate, saying it made recommendations that "you and I would come up with over the phone." And Russell Baker, the New York Times humorist, gave the report's authors "an A+ in mediocrity."