Special Report
Federal Opinion

20 Years Later: Two Views

April 23, 2003 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Of the many possible Commentary authors for the 20th anniversary of the release of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, the 1983 “open letter to the American people” declaring that mediocrity in education posed a threat to the nation, two names rose to the top of the list. They belong to two giants of the era of school reform that began in the 1980s, educator-authors whose pathbreaking books have helped shape the thinking of practitioners and policy experts over the past two decades.

John I. Goodlad, the president of the Institute for Educational Inquiry, based in Seattle, began his teaching career in a one-room school and has since taught at every level, from 1st grade to graduate school. While the dean of the graduate school of education at the University of California, Los Angeles, he was tapped to direct the massive research undertaking that culminated in “A Study of Schooling in the United States.” His 1984 book based on that study, A Place Called School, is considered a landmark document.

Focusing later on teachers and teacher education, his work led to other influential books, including Places Where Teachers Are Taught. From 1986 until 2000, he directed the Center for Educational Renewal, located at the University of Washington, where he remains a professor emeritus of education.

Read Mr. Goodlad’s Commentary, “A Nation in Wait.”

, the founder and chairman emeritus of the Coalition of Essential Schools, has been called “arguably the leading educational reformer in the United States.” After serving as the dean of Harvard University’s graduate school of education and the headmaster of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., he received a grant in 1979 to head “A Study of High Schools.” Among the products of that study was his 1984 book.

In 1984, he also founded the Coalition of Essential Schools, a reform network through which he has worked with hundreds of high schools. He also was the founding director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, located at Brown University. After retiring from Brown, he took a one-year appointment as principal of the coalition school in Devens, Mass. He is now a visiting fellow at the Harvard education school.

Read Mr. Sizer’s Commentary, “Two Reports.”

Related Tags:

Events

Teaching Profession K-12 Essentials Forum New Insights Into the Teaching Profession
Join this free virtual event to get exclusive insights from Education Week's State of Teaching project.
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal The U.S. Department of Energy Is Trying to Change a Title IX Rule. Why?
Proposals from the U.S. Department of Energy show buy-in from across the administration for the president's view of gender identity.
6 min read
Runners take off from the starting line for the 2A girls championship cross country race on Oct. 28, 2023, at the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Runners take off from the starting line for the 2A girls championship cross-country race on Oct. 28, 2023, at the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Trump administration is proposing a change to a school athletics rule under Title IX, but doing it through the U.S. Department of Energy rather than the Department of Education.
Parker Seibold/The Gazette via AP
Federal Trump Admin. Was Moving Ed. Dept. Programs Elsewhere Before a Court Intervened
The department had penned agreements with the U.S. departments of Labor and the Treasury to move programs, but was halted by court order.
8 min read
A Morehouse College student lines up before the school commencement, May 19, 2024, in Atlanta. The Education Department announced on July 18, 2024, that it is cancelling an additional $1.2 billion in student loans for borrowers who work in public service.
A Morehouse College student lines up before the school commencement on May 19, 2024, in Atlanta. The U.S. Department of Education had started to work with the U.S. Department of the Treasury on transferring its student loan portfolio, a new court filing shows.
Seth Wenig/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Adds Project 2025 Author to Education Department Staff
The appointment comes as Trump has already begun to embrace plans outlined in the controversial 900-page conservative policy agenda.
4 min read
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. The Trump administration has added the author of the conservative policy document's chapter on education to the U.S. Department of Education's staff.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Pauses Ed. Dept. Layoffs After Judge's Order
The U.S. Department of Education is slowly complying with a federal court order to reinstate staff.
3 min read
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the Office of the General Counsel at the Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the office of general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025, the last day of work for hundreds of agency employees. The Trump administration has had to bump back the day it planned to stop paying laid-off staff.
Jose Luis Magana/AP