Thirty years ago a groundbreaking report from the National Commission on Excellence in Education brought a national focus on education and the dire conditions of many of America’s schools. Published in 1983, the opening lines of A Nation At Risk were direct and chilling. The report declared that “….the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people…If an unfriendly foreig