Harvard Graduate School of Education

A Nation Reformed?
American Education Twenty Years after A Nation at Risk

Edited by David T. Gordon with a foreward by Patricia Albjerg Graham

On April 26, 1983, the blue-ribbon National Commission on Excellence in Education issued "an open letter to the American people" on the state of our nation's schools. "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" was one of many such reports that year, but its title and incendiary language set it apart almost immediately. We were warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity" in our schools that imperiled the nation's future. The symbolic opening salvo in a two-decade-long struggle to improve schools, A Nation at Risk helped put education reform at the top of the national agenda.

A Nation Reformed? takes stock of twenty years of school reform. Was the nation really ever "at risk" and, if so, is it still? Which reforms have made a difference and which haven't? And where do we go from here?

Praise:

"School teachers, administrators, and community members who want a better understanding of standards-based reform-of how we got here and why-will benefit a great deal from this book. These contributors, who have been at the forefront of national discussions about improving schools, cogently lay out the complexities of educating youth to high standards. They make a convincing and inspiring case for why reform should focus on what counts the most: improving teaching and learning. If you read one book on this important anniversary, it should be A Nation Reformed?"
—Ramon Cortines, former Chancellor, New York City Public Schools

"A deep, insightful, balanced appraisal from an extraordinary array of 'school reformers'-scholars, practitioners, and policy analysts-who have stayed the course for 20+ years. What they have learned and what they know about the barriers that still lie ahead is a must read for anyone concerned about the future well-being of our children, our schools, and yes, ultimately, 'our nation at risk.'"
—Anthony Bryk, Director, Center for School Improvement, University of Chicago

Contributors:

Richard F. Elmore, Susan H. Fuhrman, Nathan Glazer, David T. Gordon, Patricia Albjerg Graham, Pam Grossman, Jeff Howard, Timothy Knowles, Kim Marshall, Robert B. Schwartz, Maris A. Vinovskis

About the Editor:

David T. Gordon is editor of the Harvard Education Letter, the award-winning publication on K-12 education, and of the book The Digital Classroom: How Technology is Changing the Way We Teach and Learn.