ABSTRACT
When some of these findings (loose coupling, uncertain technology, and goal ambiguity) became linked with other issues in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as declining SAT scores, violence and drug use in schools, declining interest in teaching as a profession, and American economic problems, the solutions offered in A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Education, 1983) were more mandates, and higher requirements (e.g., high school graduation, time on task,
teacher training, evaluation, and certification) that intensified what schools were already doing by focusing on individuals and bureaucratically tightening linkages from the top-down. Although these first wave educational reforms were said to have had some positive effects, they were deemed inadequate to many current and future challenges (Cohen, 1989:40--41).
