The Nation : U.S. Schools ‘Still at Risk,’ Bennett Says

Education Secretary William J. Bennett said that the American education system has made little progress in the five years since a report called “A Nation at Risk” warned that the system was sinking below “a rising tide of mediocrity.” In a report to be formally delivered to President Reagan on Tuesday, Bennett contends that the school system “is still at risk.” While acknowledging some progress in school reform since 1983, Bennett maintains that the “absolute level at which our improvements are taking place is unacceptably low.” He assailed the dropout rate, poor education of those who do graduate from high school, the widely varying quality of school curricula, the rarity of good schools for disadvantaged and minority children and the manner of promoting teachers and principals “that make excellence a matter of chance, not design.”