Recommendations of commission reports on improving quality in public education are seen as primarily political statements reflecting the public outrage over the declining quality of American schooling. If the recommendations for sharpening basic skills spill over into higher education, there will be pressure to make colleges into trade schools.…

Two recent reports (Boyer's "High School" and Goodlad's "A Place Called School") on the current state of U.S. education and the goals and means of improving it are discussed. It is concluded that public policy must match the needs expressed in these and other reports on education, and that it is critical to support the teacher and humanize…