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Title: Catching Up or Leading the Way Chapter 1: Recent Education Reform in the United States


 * Sputnik: 1960: J F. Kennedy used the launching of Sputnik (aka: the Missile Gap) as a political platform to insure his position as the next president.
 * The perception given was the Soviet Union was more "advanced" and we needed to rise up and do something about it.
 * The "missile gap" although proved later to be a myth, was the inspiration for creating the NDEA and allowing the government to have a more authoritative voice in education.
 * Evoking fear into Americans from misleading reports and political agendas were used to establish new education reforms in the 60's.

Chapter 2: From the Missile Gap to the Learning Gap


 * Twenty three years later America had it's next threat. A Nation at Risk: The threat from Japan, Korea, and Germany.
 * The report was entitled: A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform.
 * Again the intent was to evoke fear into Americans and their leaders so they would rise to this next crisis.
 * This is an excerpt from the report: 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 ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge.
 * Although the results from the report were slow coming, President Reagan used it as his political platform to win reelection in 1984.
 * [|A Nation at Risk Report]
 * A Nation at Risk Report and Reagan's spin has led to tougher standards on schools, teachers, and students. These reforms have evolved into No Child Left Behind.