The Echo of Reform Rhetoric: Arguments about National and Local School Failure in the News, 1984–2016

The public discussion of education consistently emphasizes school failure. To better understand this rhetoric, we tracked its appearance in five prominent print outlets from 1984 to 2016. By distinguishing between arguments about local schools and the nation’s schools, we found that discussions of “failing schools” surged first as a claim about the nation’s schools and then as a claim about local schools. But, whereas the discussion of national failure featured a narrowed set of arguments, the subsequent discussion of local failure was composed more broadly. Thus, we describe a rhetorical echo, wherein the discussion of local failure acquired the shape and intensity of the preceding national discussion, while taking on the particulars of community context. A national narrative frame shaped the telling of local stories.