[THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON Cato Unbound ON APRIL 7, 2008]

“A Nation at Risk” Twenty-Five Years Later

by Richard Rothstein
April 7th, 2008

In 1983, A Nation at Risk misidentified what is wrong with our public schools and consequently set the nation on a school reform crusade that has done more harm than good.

The diagnosis of the National Commission on Excellence in Education was flawed in three respects: First, it wrongly concluded that student achievement was declining. Second, it placed the blame on schools for national economic problems over which schools have relatively little influence. Third, it ignored the responsibility of the nation’s other social and economic institutions for learning.

Read the entire article on the Cato Unbound Web site.