On April 26, 1983, A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform branded America's educational institutions as dangerously mediocre: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today,” the report bellowed, “we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” It's been 30 years since A Nation at Risk. Is America still at risk? Where have we improved as a nation? Where have we fallen short? And what will our educational institutions look like 30 years from now?

These are the questions that the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the American Enterprise Institute seek to answer in the joint video retrospective: “‘A Nation at Risk’: 30 Years Later,” featuring commentary from Lamar Alexander, William J. Bennett, Arne Duncan, David Driscoll, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Milton Goldberg, Frederick M. Hess, Michael J. Petrilli, Diane Ravitch, Michelle Rhee, Andrew Rotherham, and Margaret Spellings.