Foreword

In 1987, when the NBPTS was established and began its work, there were no advanced teaching standards or performance assessments for teachers and teaching in the US, or, to the best of our knowledge at the time, in any other nation. Schools were being subjected to widespread criticism for allegedly poor academic performance, summarized famously in a government report, “A Nation at Risk”, that was released by the US President Ronald Reagan with great media fanfare in 1985. State governors, CEOs of large corporations, and leaders of teacher unions led in organizing a response, focusing on new standards for what students should learn in school, and placing pressure on schools to produce better student achievement. In the decade that followed, standards for what students should be expected to learn were developed for all subject fields and grade levels. Typically, the standards in the subject-matter fields were developed in almost complete isolation from each other, and much of the work was done within individual states, so a nationally coherent system did not emerge.