More state activity aimed at improving public education took place in the 1980s than ever before. State legislators introduced an unsurpassed number of education-related bills, increased state aid, and examined the findings of hundreds of state-level task forces and commissions. Education initiatives spread quickly from state to state. To shed light on the significance of the reform movement itself, in 1986 the Center for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) began a 5-year study of the implementation and effects of state education reforms in six states chosen for their diverse approaches to reform: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. This article pres- ents some of the findings from that research.
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