Teacher certification testing in physical education

The 1980s witnessed an unparalled review, analysis, and critique of the quality of education and schooling in the United States. Criticism that has emanated from the wide range of reports and research studies was directed to all levels of education including the nation's schools (Boyer, 1986; Goodlad, 1983; Sizer, 1986), teacher education (Holmes Group, 1986), conditions of teaching and the teaching profession (Carnegie Task Force, 1986), and the quality of undergraduate education (Bennett, 1984; Boyer, 1987)_ A federally funded report called "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" (National Commission, 1983) was the impetus for many of the later documents and was largely responsible for shaping the public's view of education. The seriousness of the allegations about the decline and general malaise in education that set the tone for many later documents can best be understood from an oft-quoted line of the report: "If an unfriendly foreign power had done to American education what the country has done to itself it would have been regarded as an act of war"