40 years ago 'A Nation at Risk' warned of a 'rising tide of mediocrity' in US schools – has anything changed?

Academic gains made over the past four decades have begun to erode. Troy Aossey/The Image Bank via Getty Images

The National Commission on Excellence in Education’s release of a report titled “A Nation at Risk” in 1983 was a pivotal point in the history of American education. The report used dire language, lamenting that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”

Using Cold War language, the report also famously stated: “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.”