The legacy of National Commission on Excellence in Education: much activity, but little improvement

Twenty years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education delivered a shocking report called A Nation at Risk, which awakened millions of Americans to a national crisis in primary and secondary education. But today, while reverberations from that report are still being felt, solid and conclusive reforms in American primary and secondary education remain elusive. Why?

In Our Schools and Our Future, the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education looks at the response to the commission's report and analyzes why it produced so much activity and so little improvement. Among their findings, the members of the task force reveal how many bold reform proposals have been implemented in limited and piecemeal fashion. They conclude that fundamental changes are needed in the incentive structure and power relationships of schooling itself and offer recommendations based in three core principles: accountability, choice, and transparency.

Accountability, they explain, will mean that everyone in the system will know what results are expected, how they will be measured, and what will happen if results are not attained. Choice will bring freedom, diversity, and innovation. Transparency will yield the information needed to assure both top-down accountability and a viable marketplace of methods and ideas. The results of these three taken together, they assert, will be a reinvigorated yet very different system that will rekindle Americans' confidence in public education.

Contributors:
John E. Chubb is chief education officer and one of the founders of Edison Schools, a private manager of public schools, including many charter schools.

Williamson M. Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Chester E. Finn Jr. is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and chairman of Hoover's Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He is also president and a trustee of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

Eric A. Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Paul T. Hill is a research professor in the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs and director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, both at the University of Washington.

E. D. Hirsch Jr. is a professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia.

Caroline M. Hoxby is a professor of economics at Harvard University. Terry M. Moe is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor of political science at Stanford University.

Paul E. Peterson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University.

Diane Ravitch is a research professor at New York University; she holds the Brown Chair in Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

Herbert J. Walberg is research professor emeritus of education and psychology and University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Reviews:
"When A Nation at Risk was published 20 years ago, it was seen as something of the Peyton Place of education reports: It stunned the establishment, readers threw up their hands and proclaimed themselves shocked by it, but no one could tear themselves away from reading it. Now, on the 20th anniversary of the original report, the Koret Task Force tells a no less compelling story."

Lisa Graham Keegan,
Chief Executive Officer, Education Leaders Council

"The thoughtfulness of Our Schools and Our Future: . . . Are We Still at Risk? is much to the task force's credit. For one who was 'present at the creation,' revisiting A Nation at Risk in such distinguished company is . . . satisfying . . . because this retrospective confirms that, whatever else may be said of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, its work and words were not only taken to heart by its initial audience but are still taken seriously by serious people."

Milton Goldberg,
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Education Commission of the States and Executive Director, National Commission on Excellence in Education

"The Koret Task Forces does a valuable service for American education. Its recommendations are largely on target as we stick with the task of improving our schools and move toward the goal of 'leaving no child behind.'"

James B. Hunt Jr.,
Governor of North Carolina, 1977-l985, l993-2001, and Chairman, the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

. . . ARE WE STILL AT RISK?

Findings and Recommendations3
Koret Task Force on K-12 Education

PART ONE: "A NATION AT RISK": THEN AND NOW

1. A Historic Document25
Diane Ravitch
2. Little Gain in Student Achievement39
Paul E. Peterson
3. What Has Changed and What Has Not73
Caroline M. Hoxby
4. Minority Children at Risk111
Paul Hill, Kacey Guin, and Mary Beth Celio
5. The Importance of School Quality141
Eric A. Hanushek

PART TWO: WHY SO LITTLE WAS REFORMED

6. The Politics of the Status Quo177
Terry M. Moe
7. Teacher Reform Gone Astray211
Chester E. Finn Jr.
8. The Curricular Smorgasbord239
Williamson M. Evers and Paul Clopton
9. Neglecting the Early Grades281
E. D. Hirsch Jr.

PART THREE: GETTING SERIOUS

10. Real Accountability305
Herbert J. Walberg
11. Real Choice329
John E. Chubb