Talk:A Nation at Risk
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[edit] Nowhere in Wikipedia
I can't believe "A Nation at Risk" was not an article. Is there another title? Glenn4pr 07:04, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
- The first ghit I turned up was this. It seems to have the content you describe, but doesn't seem to be attributed to Reagan. I do remember the speech and the catchphrase, but I don't recall if it had another name. --Doc Tropics Message in a bottle 07:09, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
- It looks like the phrase "a rising tide of mediocrity" may have originated in a cover-letter associated with the report I linked to. Unfortunately that doesn't actually help find the name of RR's speech :) --Doc Tropics Message in a bottle 07:15, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Major Overhaul
I added specifics regarding the commission's recommendations and tried to situate the report historically, among similar presidential commissions (e.g. Spellings and others)
(72.89.205.16 20:57, 15 September 2007 (UTC))
[edit] Revision
I felt article needed some context which I tried to supply. I know this paragraph needs work and references but I felt it was important to introduce these points and the refinement could happen later.
Tony (talk) 18:05, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
Hey...I don't disagree with the point you make, but there are lots and lots of unsupported claims in this section. More like an op-ed than an entry. What should we do about that?
[edit] The Long-term Significance of the Report
I removed the following section from the article since it violates WP:NPOV:
- A Nation at Risk might be viewed as one instance of a general tendency towards mythologizing the past on the part of President Reagan and his supporters. Public education in this country was never in fact ideal. When the United States had a solid industrial economic base there were sufficient jobs for unskilled or semi-skilled workers to find gainful employment; those people who were not "college material" could discreetly leave high school and get a job in a steel mill, an automobile factory or a shipyard. In the late nineteen-seventies such jobs were disappearing in the United States. In the first wave of the "off-shoring" of America a current belief was that everyone was going to be re-trained as a computer programmer. That did not in fact happen. Many people are just not suited to office jobs but there is nowhere for these people to go now and this demographic is tested and those numbers skew the statistical analysis. No Child Left Behind is the direct descendant of "A Nation at Risk" and it has complicated the lives of our teachers as they try to include some actual instruction in their courses as well as conforming to all the assessment requirements that have been imposed. It seems to have most benefited the companies that sell tests of questionable validity to assess the academic standing of the students. Perhaps the enrichment of some of his political supporters who are in the educational assessment business could justify President Bush's reversal of his usual position in favor of states' rights.
Inline citations need to be added and the article needs significant copyediting before it can be added back. Dr. Cash (talk) 23:16, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
