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"Our nation is at risk."

So begins the seminal Reagan-era report "A Nation At Risk," which this month marks its 25th anniversary.

The report shocked parents, teachers and policymakers and helped launch the push for more rigor and standards in American education. It sparked years of change in education policy, including the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

Today it represents a kind of Big Bang in discussions about education, according to Andrew Rotherham, co-director of the Washington D.C.-based group Education Sector, and a member of the Virginia Board of Education.

While researchers don't often cite the report's findings or statistics, of which there are relatively few, they are still talking about its impact, he said.

"What you usually hear is: 'Since 'A Nation At Risk,' " he said. "It's become a sort of marker."

Perhaps what's most remarkable about the report is that it got written at all. It can seem strange today to think that President Reagan, a man who wanted to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, could have presided over such a manifesto.

Lou Cannon, in his biography, "President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime," calls the report "the most thoughtful document to emerge from any government agency during the Reagan presidency."

Still, Cannon writes, "Though Reagan praised the report, his interest in it was largely rhetorical."

A quarter-century later, its language has lost none of its punch: "The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and as a people ... We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament."

"It was critically important to raising the issue of the education crisis that our country was facing in terms of not giving our children the education they need and deserve," said Gary McGinity, senior director of policy at the Broad Foundation in Los Angeles. "It woke up a lot of policymakers and parents about the critical needs we have as a country to improve our education system for our children."

The report noted that American students scored lower than many developed countries on international math and science tests. It saw a decline on some national standardized tests, a too-short school day relative to other countries' and a shortage of qualified teachers, especially in math, science and special education.

Many of those fears have not gone away. Advocates are still fretting about low test scores, Americans' low ranking on international tests and a teacher shortage.

But academic standards are everywhere in schools today. In Virginia, the Standards of Learning tests have become a fact of life and something school communities pay close attention to in the Roanoke Valley.

Prompted by the report, then-President George H.W. Bush and the country's governors held a national education summit in Charlottesville in 1989 to set goals for schools. In 1994, the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act required that states set standards for schools. Two years later, then-Gov. George Allen made the Virginia Standards of Learning tests mandatory.

Finally, in 2001, Congress passed No Child Left Behind, the controversial and far-reaching measure that requires schools to show steady improvement on state tests.

"What's changed is a greater emphasis on rigor," said Rotherham, adding, "There's still a long way to go there."

Over the past two decades, test scores on nationwide standardized math tests have gone up slightly. Reading scores have also inched up at a slower pace, or, in some cases, held steady.

The gains may have been modest but, to McGinity, we're better off from having been jolted by the report.

"Frankly I think we need another one," he said. "Because we still have not made the improvements that we need to make."