A Century of Educational Crisis and Reform in the United States

• In Event: 31.030 - National Crisis and Educational Policy

Abstract

The current phenomenon of media-driven portrayals of educational crisis has its origins in the Progressive Era, when technological advances and a growing middle class fueled the rapid expansion of mass media. This paper analyzes five key episodes between 1890 and 1985. Three significant trends emerge: 1.) public education enters mainstream news; 2.) media sources define the public’s interpretation of their schools, with differing outcomes; and 3.) over time, heightened public awareness of public education’s role in the overall fate of the nation becomes a symbolic reference to an assumed shared understanding about the proper role and function of the nation’s public schools. Media coverage depicts a kind of monolithic institution, despite the reality of local and regional variation.

Author

• Carole J. Trone, Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU)