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American Teacher April 2003--Feature
A Nation at Risk--Work in Progress
Twenty years later--still a
promise worth keeping There have been more measured, scholarly studies of public education in the past two decades. But A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform remains the taproot of school reform over that period. Released 20 years ago this month, the slim report is easily the best remembered study of education since the Sputnik era. Some of the report's observations--"a rising tide of mediocrity," "unilateral educational disarmament"--have entered the lexicon of educators and the public at large. The 20-year anniversary of A Nation at Risk occurs with public education at a crossroads. Gains have been made, although progress, as AFT president Sandra Feldman describes it, has been "heartbreakingly slow." Part of the problem may lie in our ability to remember critical school observations contained in A Nation at Risk without paying heed to another important aspect of the report: responsibility. All of us--educators, students, parents, policymakers and the public--have a shared responsibility to ensure that schools receive the support they desperately need to help all students reach their potential. The AFT was one of the first organizations to stand behind the major thrust of the report, which, along with its stark criticism of schools, was also a long-overdue restatement of public education's core promise: "All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost." In 2003, just as in 1983, it's still a promise that's worth keeping.
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