ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two themes related to education policy. A major portion of the chapter is concerned with educational reform. The NAEP data also allows us to investigate one of the most important areas in education: gaps in achievement between whites and minoritie. Private schools became an important factor in attempts by the federal government to assist public schools. The private schools, particularly the Catholic ones, insisted that they should be eligible for any federal assistance that public schools receive. One of the important underlying currents in educational policy disputes is public versus private school student achievement. The 1980s saw considerable adoption of educational reform, though some of it predates the "awakening" of the educational crisis in 1983. American students as a whole have never performed at the top of such tests. She also notes that despite this secondary position, the economy has performed well. The higher the percentage of poor students in a school, the poorer the performance.
