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Title: Catching Up or Leading the Way Chapter 1 and 2: 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 in the U.S. Although the "missile gap" was indeed a myth, it worked for Kennedy and his political endeavors. He evoked fear in American citizens and leaders and got positive results.The Sputnik launch led directly to National Defense Education Act. The NDEA marked the beginning of an increasing involvement of the Federal Government in education. Our education system was in crisis and we could not let the Soviet Union best us so we took charge. America is still standing and the Soviet Union is no more which supports the missile gap was a farce. In 1991 the Soviet Union succumbed to its' demise. 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 a sinpit of 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 our selves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of Sputnik challenge. This is a website that links to the A Nation at Risk Report.http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html. Below is a picture of the chairman of the 1983 National Commission on Excellence in Education David Pierpont Gardner. Although the results from the report were slow coming, President Reagan used it as his political platform to become the next president in the U.S. in 1984.Reagan's perposal was to bring back God in the classroom, give tax credits for private school users, support vouchers, leave education in the hands of parents, and abolish department of education. The report was about to go down in flames but the media got a hold of it and Reagan changed his position and as I said above used it to his advantage and it won him the election. A Nation at Risk report and Reagan spin has led to tougher standards on schools, teachers, and students. These reforms have evolved into No Child Left Behind.