ABSTRACT
The 1980s will undoubtedly be remembered as the decade of reform reports. In that decade well over thirty reports identifying, analyzing and proposing solutions to the problems in American education were issued. One of the most widely cited, A Nation at Risk (NCEE, 1983) issued a battle cry that ‘the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people’ (p. 5). According to the National Commission on Educational Excellence (1983), American education was in a crisis. Other reports reached similar conclusions. The reports, however, were marked by important differences, and according to Webb and Sherman (1989), can be classified into four types. Illustrative of reports that take economic and technical approaches to education, A Nation at Risk (1983), emphasizes economic development, concentrates on business and competitiveness in a global economy, and recommends closer linkages between business and schools. Other reform documents such as the Paideia Proposal (Adler, 1982) stress intellectual competence. Reports that focus on institutional excellence represent a third type. Unlike reports from the first two categories, these reports address the institutional constraints on the lives of teachers and argue that changing teachers’ working conditions will enable them to teach better. The most notable report of this kind is A Place Called School, (1983), authored by John Goodlad. Finally, there are a number of reports whose central focus is on excellence and equity. Unlike the reports that comprise the first three categories, these reports contend that appeals to excellence in education are severely compromised unless accompanied by a commitment to serving poor students and students of color,1 those currently least well served by the existing school arrangements.
