“Education in the United States is in a state of crisis.”  (Kanpol, 1994, p. 1)  The sense that
something is very wrong pervades much of the contemporary thought regarding public education.
One question that needs to be asked is, are we truly a nation at risk, or a nation deceived by a
manufactured crisis?
 
The purpose of this study is to address that question.  To that end, this investigation has three
main thrusts.  First, it will focus on establishing the central dilemma(s) in contemporary education.
Second, the study will evaluate these dilemmas according to a classic paradigm for American
education based on the philosophy of John Dewey: knowledge, power, and democracy.  Third, a
case will be made for ameliorating these dilemmas by reconceptualizing education through a new
paradigm of critical efficacy.

The central dilemmas in contemporary public education seem to be quality, efficiency, equity, and
choice.  The authors of a Nation at Risk (1983) reported that they were helping to fulfill the
mandate for “quality education” voiced by “high school and college students, school board
members, and teachers; of leaders of industry, minority groups, and higher education; of parents and
State officials.”  The authors then go on to blame teachers for the lack of quality in education.  In
recent government reports, the quality issue remains centered around teachers.  The Clinton
Administration sponsored a recent report: Promising Practices: New Ways to Improve Teacher
Quality (1998).  This report stirs the fear of under-qualified teachers in our “most challenging
classrooms.”  The efficiency dilemma is essentially an economic one.  The authors of a  Nation at
Risk express concern about the economic efficiency of public education.  The Brookings Institute
states that “Educators must strive consistently to use the available financial and human resources to
maximize students performance.” (Brookings, 1994, p. xv) In others words, educational/student output
must justify the government’s financial input.  Equity is another dilemma for education today.  A
portion of the Title I funds allocated under the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary
Schools Act of 1965 (1996) specifies opportunities to be extended to “Disadvantaged Students.”
These opportunities include “traditional classroom instruction, community service, and extracurricular
and cultural activities.” The traditional classroom instruction would use classroom teachers and
“textbooks and materials from the students’ regular classes.”  The proposal for cultural activity is
“bilingual instruction.”  The choice issue has “emerged as the single most rousing idea in the current
school reform effort.” (Rasell and Rothstein, 1993, p. xi)

A classic paradigm for examining education is based on Dewey’s three fundamental factors of the
educative process: organized subject matter, the learner, and society.  (Dewey, 1902, pp. 4-8) This
study will refer to these ideas as: knowledge, power, and democracy.

Critical efficacy is a paradigm that integrates the three tenets of the classic education paradigm
described above, with three additional factors: technology and technorealism, popular culture, and
global education.

The three major objectives of this study are: 1) to analyze the rhetoric and realities of  contemporary
education through an examination of the sources and influences on, of, and by government reports,
media coverage, and critical theories and theorists; 2) to evaluate national reports and other
professional literature according to the nature of a classic educational paradigm of power, knowledge,
and democracy; 3) to develop a reconceptualized paradigm for education, critical efficacy, which
integrates a postmodern  perspective into the classic model.

This investigation will employ a political, historical, and textual research framework.  A political
framework of analysis is used here as the means for documenting the sources of influence and power
that shape education rhetoric and practice.  A historical vantage point is submitted as the framework
of analysis for evaluating the nature and impact of the rhetoric, policies, and reforms in relation to
changing socio-political conditions over time.  A textual framework will provide a context for
analyzing educative constructs.

References:

Dewey, J.  (1902).  The Child and the Curriculum.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kanpol, B.  (1994).  Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction.  Westport, CT.: Bergin & Garvey.

National Center for Education Statistics (1999).  Teacher Quality: A Report on the Preparation
    and Qualifications of Public School Teachers.  Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of
    Education.

National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983).  A Nation at Risk: The Imperatives for
    Education Reform.  Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Rasell, E. and Rothstein, R.  (1993).  School Choice: Examining the Evidence.  Washington
    D.C.: The Economic Policy Institute.

U.S. Department of Education (1999).  An Idea Book on Extending Learning Time for
    Disadvantaged Students.  Washington, D.C.: Author.

U.S. Department of Education (1998).  Promising Practices: New Ways to Improve Teacher
    Quality.  Washington, D.C.: Author.