---

A Nation at Risk

---

2008 marked the 25th anniversary of the landmark report A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform.  Deemed "the most important education reform document of the 20th century" by education historian Diane Ravitch, the report received overwhelming media attention, alerting the entire nation to the failings of our education system and the risk it posed to our national security and economic well-being.

The report was released April 26, 1983 and was written by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, created by the U.S. Secretary of Education under the Ronald Reagan administration. They were directed to examine the quality of education in the United States and make a report to the Nation.

The opening paragraph begins,

“Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. This report is concerned with only one of the many causes and dimensions of the problem, but it is the one that under girds American prosperity, security, and civility… the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur—others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments. If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.”

25 Years Later...

On the 25th anniversary of this sobering report, the American education system remains in a state of crisis. We are “A Nation STILL at Risk”.

In 2008 the U.S. Department of Education released a report entitled, A Nation Accountable: Twenty-five Years After A Nation at Risk, stating:

"If we were “at risk” in 1983, we are at even greater risk now. The rising demands of our global economy, together with demographic shifts, require that we educate more students to higher levels than ever before. Yet, our education system is not keeping pace with these growing demands.”

The outcomes and accompanying statistics are startling not only from a National perspective but for Utah as well.

• In Math, the U.S. ranked 25th out of 30 industrialized nations and in Science, 21st out of 30 according to 2006 statistics from the National Center for Education.
• Known as "The Nation’s Report Card,” NAEP (which tests 4th, 8th, and 12th graders) is used by researchers and policymakers as the standard for measuring student achievement across the U.S. When test results are shown by ethnicity, Utah is consistently below average. Reading scores among Utah’s fourth-graders have remained virtually unchanged since 1992. On the 2007 NAEP writing test, Utah Hispanic students scored the lowest nationwide.
• According to the U.S. Department of Education, high school seniors score the same in math and reading as they did in 1971.
• 1 in 5, or 20% of 2008 graduates failed Utah's required high school exit exam, the Utah Basic Skills and Competency Test, which measures basic skills in three concept areas: reading, language arts, and mathematics.
• Although Utah has the 8th highest graduation rate in the nation, depending on whether you look at Education Week’s rates calculated using a nationwide standard, tracking 9th-12th grades or the Utah State Office of Education who tracks 10th-12th, you are still left with sobering graduation rates dipping below 70% for many Utah schools. Even when the tracking does not include 9th grade, there are several high schools where 25% of the graduating class has dropped out.
• Black and Hispanic males in Utah are more likely to dropout than graduate.
• Nearly 70% of Utah high school graduates take the ACT. Of those, only one quarter score high enough on all four parts of the exam to be considered college ready.
• The percentage of 18 to 24 year olds enrolled in college in Utah has dropped from 41% to 34% in the past 14 years.
• Utah ranks 47th in the nation in the number of college degrees conferred.

This sampling of statistics was intended to shock you. A Nation At Risk warned, “History is not kind to idlers. The world is indeed one global village. We live among determined, well-educated, and strongly motivated competitors.”

The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce reported in 2008, “The nation is running out of time. Forty years ago, the United States had the best-educated workforce in the world. Now we are number ten and falling.” Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But until we, the parents, taxpayers, business and community leaders and policymakers demand comprehensive solutions nothing will change.

A Message to Parents

In the report, the commission issued a message to parents. “You have the right to demand for your children the best our schools and colleges can provide. Your vigilance and your refusal to be satisfied with less than the best are the imperative first step.”

As parents, citizens, and taxpayers it is not only our right but also our responsibility to steer the direction of our children's education. They are our future. They deserve every opportunity to become the innovators, entrepreneurs, and future leaders of tomorrow. We must be involved and informed. We must demand a voice and continue to seek meaningful solutions. Parents for Choice in Education will continue to be that voice, we will continue to advocate for every child to have equal access to a quality education, we will continue to advance initiatives that empower parents, and we will continue to seek innovative solutions to Utah’s educational challenges.

Why This Matters

As stated in the report:

“Part of what is at risk is the promise first made on this continent: All, regardless of race or class or economic status, are entitled to a fair chance and to the tools for developing their individual powers of mind and spirit to the utmost. This promise means that all children by virtue of their own efforts, competently guided, can hope to attain the mature and informed judgment needed to secure gainful employment, and to manage their own lives, thereby serving not only their own interests but also the progress of society itself.”

Learn More

• Read "A Nation at Risk"
• Read "A Nation Accountable: Twenty-five Years After A Nation at Risk"
• Go to the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce