What was "A Nation at Risk"? A movement in the mid-1800s that encouraged mandatory schooling for children for at least a few months out of the year A law passed in Massachusetts in 1647 that required towns with 50 or more families to hire a schoolmaster to teach reading and writing. A federal initiative introduced in 2002 intended to close the performance gap between high- and low-performance schools and to ensure that every child receives a quality education. An influential report released in 1983 that questioned the effectiveness and fairness of our education system