...consequences, the Nation at Risk report should have laid those doubts to rest. Its unforgettable indictment ("If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to...exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."3) provoked a nationwide debate on the state of American education, a debate that is still going...

...supposedly failing school system. It spoke of "a rising tide of mediocrity" and went so far as to say, "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose...exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."17 Response to the alarm was nationwide, and by 2000 every state but one (Iowa) had established...

...responsible for this economic trouble. The report summarized its findings in brutal terms: If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre...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 even squandered the gains in achievement...

...we still do not have agreed-upon standards and values for our school system. That report's assertion that "if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted...today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war" is just as true today, in the new millennium, as it was when written in the eighties. Reflecting back...

...major reform in public education. This was undoubtedly the reason for the frequently quoted statement that "if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted...today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. . . . We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament."1...

...tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people," the report began, adding that "if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted...today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war." Worse, the report found that the gains in student achievement we'd made in the 1950s and early 1960s...

...being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people ... If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose...today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war." Other studies reported that American students ranked near the bottom in scores on international mathematics...

...the schools did not shape up, the Germans and the Japanese would beat America's economic brains out: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose...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...

...educational attainments" (Graubard, 1995: v). The most famous and most-quoted part of the report read: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose...today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war" (Billitteri, 1997: 927). It called for a longer school day and school year and for standards in content...

...Community Perspective oo Systemic Renewal: What Works? Patricia Cloud Duttweiler Barriers to Change If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose...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...