Special commissions on education are common, but none have had the same transformational impact as the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Convened by U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel Bell just seven months into President Ronald Reagan’s first term to “help define the problems afflicting American education and to provide solutions,” prevailing wisdom suggested that […]
1983
A Nation at Risk (1983)
A Nation at Risk, published by the U.S. National Commission on Excellence in Education, warned that the foundations of the American education system were eroding under mediocrity. The report argued that declining academic performance, diluted curricula, and low expectations were placing the nation’s economic future and global leadership in jeopardy. With dire metaphors—“a rising tide […]
