Summary
Contents
Congress and the Nation is the most authoritative reference on congressional trends, actions, and political and policy controversies. This award-winning series documents the most fiercely debated issues in recent American politics, providing a unique retrospective analysis of the policies the U.S. Congress. Organized by policy area, each chapter contains summaries of legislative activity, including bills passed, defeated, or postponed. No other authoritative source guides readers seamlessly through the policy output of the national legislature with the breadth, depth, and authority of Congress and the Nation.
Congress and the Nation is the most authoritative reference on congressional trends, actions, and political and policy controversies. This award-winning series documents the most fiercely debated issues in recent American politics, providing a unique retrospective analysis of the policies the U.S. Congress. Organized by policy area, each chapter contains summaries of legislative activity, including bills passed, defeated, or postponed. No other authoritative source guides readers seamlessly through the policy output of the national legislature with the breadth, depth, and authority of Congress and the Nation.
Congress and the Nation is the most authoritative reference on congressional trends, actions, and political and policy controversies. This award-winning series documents the most fiercely debated issues in recent American politics, providing a unique retrospective analysis of the policies the U.S. Congress. Organized by policy area, each chapter contains summaries of legislative activity, including bills passed, defeated, or postponed. No other authoritative source guides readers seamlessly through the policy output of the national legislature with the breadth, depth, and authority of Congress and the Nation.
Education Policy
Education Policy
Introduction
Education issues in the mid-to-late 1980s were dominated by the continuing efforts to reform the nation's public schools.
By 1988 — five years after the release of the landmark report A Nation at Risk, which had launched the movement — reformers could point to evidence of major changes aimed at correcting what many saw as the woeful inadequacies of the educational system.
The first wave of reform, which was largely carried out at the state level, focused on two major themes: raising the standard for both teachers and students — for example, by toughening high school graduation requirements; and improving the status of teaching, most importantly by raising teachers' pay.
By 1988, some of the initial impetus for reform appeared to have waned. And polls showed ...