Educational Restructuring in the USA: Movements of the 1980s
| Published date | 01 April 1991 |
| Date | 01 April 1991 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000002472 |
| Author | E. Mark Hanson |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Journal
of
Educational
Administration
29,4
30
Educational Restructuring
in
the USA: Movements
of
the 1980s
E. Mark Hanson
University
of
California, Riverside,
USA
In
the
early 1980s, three major forces converged
to
give
a
dramatic push
to
the educational restructuring movement
in the
United States:
(1) The publication of
the
A
Nation
at Risk report which forced
the
nation
to examine
its
schools critically.
(2)
The
simplistic idealism
of the
"excellence
in
education" movement.
(3)
The
Reagan administration's political agenda.
After unfolding
a
host
of
educational statistics detailing
the
depths
to
which
the quality
of
American education
had
sunk,
the
authors
of
the
A
Nation
at
Risk report penned that startling conclusion that launched
a
thousand attempts
at reform:
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
...
We have,
in
effect, been committing
an act
of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament[1].
The second major force propelling
the
restructuring movement
was the
"excellence
in
education" movement that
had
been around since
the
1970s,
but assumed great legitimacy after the
A
Nation at
Risk report gained national
attention. All across America emphasis
was
given
to
improving instructional
quality and requiring more mathematics, science and English, and lengthening
the school
day.
The third propelling force behind the restructuring
was
the educational agenda
of
the
Reagan administration. The challenge
to the
Reagan administration was
to shape
a
highly visible national profile emphasising educational leadership,
and to promote academic quality, all the while cutting federal financial support
to schools
[2].
Reform through rhetoric from
the
"bully pulpit"
of
Washington became
a
hallmark of
the
Reagan administration. Secretary of
Education,
William Bennett,
was fond
of
stating that anyone who argues that educational reform takes lots
of money is guilty
of
"polite extortion"
[3].
During the Reagan administration,
federal support for public elementary and secondary schools dropped from 9.8
per cent
of
total support
in
1979-80
to 6.7 per
cent
by
1985-86[4,
p. 124].
This article
is
an adapted version of Hanson, E.M.,
Educational Administration
and
Organizational
Behavior,
Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA, 1991,
Ch.
13.
Used with
the
permission
of
the publisher.
Journal
of
Educational
Administration,
Vol. 29 No. 4. 1991.
pp.
30-38.
MCB
University Press.
0957-8234
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