Road Map to Reform

Policymakers, educators seek coherent strategy to transform nation's schools

Without a doubt, the last decade has been one of the richest and most exciting in American education, both in the number of new initiatives launched and in the sustained focus on reform.

Dozens of networks of reform-oriented schools and teachers have sprung up since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983.

There are groups working on national standards and assessment systems for what teachers and students should know and be able to do. There are organizations focused on creating a stronger school-to-work transition for the non-college-bound, and those advocating universal access to...