THE COMMUNICATION OF EDUCATIONAL-REFORM - A NATION AT RISK

The 1983 publication of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education al Reform (ANAR) by the National Commission on Excellence in Education (NCEE) catapulted the issue of educational reform into the public sph ere. Not since the Soviet launching of Sputnik in the late 1950s has t he topic of educational reform figured so prominently in American publ ic discourse. This report was considered the spark that fueled educati onal reform policy, corporate involvement, gubernatorial attention, an d legislative action culminating in the passage of Goals 2000 in 1994. Because of the prominence and acclaim accorded ANAR, it is an essenti al document to examine in understanding the communication of education al reform. This essay is a critical review of the discourse about educ ational reform as presented in the scholarly and professional literatu re published about ANAR during the period from the creation of the NCE E to the passage of Goals 2000. We categorize, describe, and synthesiz e the academic articles written about ANAR as well as comment on the o verall rhetoric of educational reform associated with the report. As p relude to the review, we provide an overview of the context and climat e surrounding the creation of the NCEE and the emergence of the report .