State legislation designed to help schools and students achieve "excellence" may spawn numerous unforeseen consequences. This article discusses seven potentially harmful reform ideas: extended school year, mimimum competency tests, reliance on standardized achievement tests, state-mandated courses or curricula, blue ribbon reform panels,…

A series of focus group studies conducted by the Public Agenda Foundation explored public reactions to educational standards in 1993. This study revealed broad and spontaneous support for the idea that higher expectations will produce higher achievement. The strong endorsement of higher standards was also a manifestation of the public's concern…

The present crisis in education has its roots in educational changes promoted by graduate schools of education which promoted looser standards as early as the 1920s. To reverse this trend will require more money, more rigorous qualifications for teachers, longer school days and years, and attention to new technologies. (IS)