Preface
Across America, in state after state, a decade of major reforms in education has so far failed to produce the anticipated improvement in the quality of our schools or the academic achievements of our students.
The reform debate has intensified. Almost every day one hears of a new controversy about such issues as teacher pay and accountability, parental choice, local control, of the schools, new and revised curricula and textbooks, new forms of tests and evaluation, and year-round schools.
Notably muted in the debate has been discussion of the engagement and motivation of the students themselves. It is a curious omission, for even if we raise standards and succeed at restructuring our schools and improving the quality of our teachers, the result may be little or no improvement unless our children also increase the level of their effort. After all, now as before, it is the students who must learn more, and it is they who must do the work.
Questions, therefore, arise: What part should students play in learning? What are their responsibilities? What can we do to raise the amount and quality of student effort to the levels that excellence requires?
Late in 1990, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement held a national conference on student motivation to help answer these questions. This booklet is a sketch of what we learned. The touchstone of the conference was the mounting imperative that all of America's students must rise to the challenge of higher standards of achievement if the nation is to continue to thrive. One conclusion cannot be overemphasized: unless the untapped power of student effort and engagement is activated and harnessed to learning, we are unlikely to realize the benefits to achievement that the new reforms aim to make possible.
I would like to thank Tommy M. Tomlinson who conceived, organized, and chaired the conference and prepared this concise summary of its contributors' and conclusions