Public Education

In the year 1981, the National Commission on Excellence in Education was given the task of compiling and reviewing data based on the quality of learning and teaching of the schools in the United States. The report was to be on both public and private institutions. The schools included would be ranging from primary education to colleges and universities with a main focus on teenaged youth. After two years of research, the report was released in April of 1983. The report, A Nation at Risk, stated:

“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” (U.S. Dept. of Ed., 1983b).

Other startling details were revealed such as 13% of high school seniors in the United Stated were functionally illiterate. Minorities were affected at much higher numbers. In some areas, the rate of functional illiteracy was 40% among minorities. As each year went by, student scores on college entrance exams such as the SAT, declined in areas of math, English, and physics. Only 20% of students were able to write a persuasive essay and only 33% percent of students could solve math problems that contained multiple steps (U.S. Dept. Ed., 1983c). The report found that the curriculum being taught in schools had been simplified, varied from state to state and did not have a centralized purpose. Other factors that contributed to the deteriorization of the education system was that students of public schools spent less time on schoolwork than privately educated students and were not encouraged to develop better learning...