A Decade of Transformations.

Activism in the 1960s may have been conducted by fewer than 5 percent of college students nationwide, but the principles of inclusion and equality of opportunity these protesters espoused became the status quo in education during the 1970s. Some schools and colleges were administered by those who believed that the success of any institution and any teacher should be measured not by the treatment of its high-achieving students, but rather by the treatment of those not achieving. They believed that society's strength is much like a chain whose ultimate value is dependent upon its weakest member. Even administrators who disagreed with this philosophy found themselves altering their positions to obtain increased federal funding often dependent upon compliance with this philosophy. Consequently, efforts to shore up opportunities for and the performance of those who had typically been shortchanged in the educational process — blacks, immigrants, the handicapped...