ABSTRACT
This chapter begins to particularize discussion of the urban school crisis and teachers' interests in school reform by examining basis skills restructuring in one Northeastern state, which he call Midstate. Midstate is one of America's most urban states, and throughout the study period it became more urban each year. In the mid-1970s, much of the discourse on school reform in Midstate began to center on the possibility that the state Board of Education would approve a high school diploma examination to certify that graduating students had achieved certain basic life skills. In most progressive groups in the state initially supported the rise of the educational state; although they began to resist state policies that followed from an increase in state power over urban schools. In workshops in urban schools and in publications aimed at urban educators, state officials adopted an explicitly teach to the test philosophy of instruction.
