Commissions, Reports, Reforms, and Educational Policy

School Administrator, Sept, 1996 by Arthur W. Steller

Since the publication of A Nation at Risk, a rash of commissions have recommended cures for the ills of public education. Why this is so and what the effect has been form the basic content of Commissions, Reports, Reforms, and Educational Policy.

The upbeat rationale for the existence of such official bodies is to muster the necessary force for problem resolution, while cynics suggest that commissions are for insolveable problems appointed by crafty politicians to redirect the blame. Both sides are unmistakably correct, which is precisely the reason that blue-ribbon groups are so much in vogue.

One of the first myths cast aside in this collection of articles is that commissions are a recent activity and one largely confined to education. History shows that such reports have been a regular part of the education scene perhaps as early as the 1830s with Horace Mann's reports. Readers also will discover how the members of commissions are chosen and their reports compiled. The marketing and distribution of these reports is particularly interesting.

(Commissions, Reports, Reforms, and Educational Policy, edited by Rich Ginsberg and David Plank, Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, Conn. 06881, 1995, 280 pp. $59.95 hardcover)