A Nation at Risk

Federal Opinion Doubling Down on Testing Is a Failed Wager
Teachers need to proactively defend their profession and resist efforts by alternative certification organizations to minimize their practice.
Luis Huerta, April 23, 2013
4 min read
Federal Opinion Three Decades of Lies
A Nation at Risk had us losing the political and economic races to the Soviet Union and Japan. Did we? No!
David C. Berliner, April 23, 2013
4 min read
Federal Opinion We've Made Progress, But There's More to Do
We now judge states, districts, and schools, and, increasingly, those who work in them, not by their resources, qualifications, and intentions but by their effectiveness.
Chester E. Finn Jr., April 23, 2013
3 min read
Federal Opinion A Nation at Risk: 30 Years Later
This special collection, and a new blog that accompanies it, examines the legacy of the landmark report.
April 23, 2013
Education Letter to the Editor Criticism, and Some Praise, of A Nation at Risk Coverage
To the Editor:
Clearly the public schools have failed. Your April 22, 2009, issue contains the second installment of articles this year recounting the 25th anniversary of A Nation at Risk, which told us so. A Nation at Risk appeared in 1983. This is 2009. Unless I was mistaught, or Education Week is using something different than the usual base-10 system, that’s 26 years, not 25.
May 11, 2009
1 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Nation at Risk Assumptions Are Not Necessarily Today's
To the Editor:
In recalling the contributions of the 1983 report A Nation at Risk ("A Nation at Risk: 25 Years Later," Sept. 24, 2008), we should not forget that its authors had not bought in to the current assumption of standards reformers that secondary education is solely a preparation for college. The report stated: “We must emphasize that the variety of student aspirations, abilities, and preparations requires that appropriate content be available to satisfy diverse needs.” This statement would be dismissed by current reformers as “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
October 17, 2008
1 min read
Education Opinion A Nation at Risk for Real
I am trying to wrap my head around our current fiscal crisis. Not only am I having a hard time trying to grasp the implications of the still-developing disaster or the proposed interventions, I'm having a hard time just trying to really get a fix on what $700 billion dollars is. This is what it looks like:
Susan Graham, September 29, 2008
3 min read
Education Letter to the Editor A Nation at Risk’s 25th: Missing the Obvious
Both E.D. Hirsch Jr. and Howard Gardner miss the most obvious point in their discussions of A Nation at Risk 25 years later.
May 12, 2008
1 min read
Federal Risk Report’s Anniversary Prompts Reflection
The 25th anniversary of A Nation At Risk should give federal policymakers the opportunity to reconsider the current federal approach, one influential lawmaker said last week.
David J. Hoff, April 29, 2008
3 min read
International Series A Nation at Risk 2008
Education Week's yearlong occasional series about the report that has helped shape U.S. education policy over the past quarter-century.
April 22, 2008
Federal Collection Reform at Five
The following stories marked the five-year anniversary of National Commission on Excellence in Education's landmark Nation at Risk report.
April 18, 2008
Federal Federal File Events Are Afoot as Nation at Risk Anniversary Nears
Education policy wonks are gearing up to commemorate the 25th anniversary next week of A Nation at Risk, the report that memorably warned Americans that their society’s educational foundations were “being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity.”
Alyson Klein, April 15, 2008
1 min read
Accountability Opinion Has "A Nation at Risk" Done More Harm Than Good?
Richard Rothstein bats first in a lineup of essays at Cato Unbound commemorating the 25th anniversary of "A Nation At Risk," and asserts that the report has done more harm than good.
Eduwonkette, April 7, 2008
1 min read
Reading & Literacy Opinion Our Nation Still at Risk
School director Bruce Shaw writes that too little has changed since "A Nation at Risk" was first published 25 years ago.
Bruce Shaw, March 11, 2008
3 min read