Still A Great Item - Public Education Reform Book Review

By Brianna Martinez

The bottom line is that Dr Ravitch does not provide a course of action for struggling school districts to follow. She not only doesn't have a single "magic bullet" or "panacea" of the kind she derides the existing reforms for trying to be, she doesn't offer a complex, multi-component program for improvement either.

It has nothing to do with ideology, agenda, or "politics." As a teacher from "the trenches" who has kept an open mind over 35 years of classroom experience and endorsed ideas solely on their proven merit in practice, I am awed by Ravitch's perfect grasp not only of research, but the reality "in the field." She also attacks major financial education philanthropies, such as Bill Gates, and shows that simply throwing money at schools doesn't work if it's put in all the wrong places. As a teacher, I was fascinated by her research and perspective. Her voice against standardized testing and the narrowing of curriculum is a cry in the wilderness against the insidious depredations of the corporatists. If you have wondered what is going on in America's schools and why all of a sudden Oprah, NBC, and Bill Gates are so interested in public education you need to read this book. And you do not have to figure out how they do it. They tell you.

And she asks who, when there is no accountability, will take the fall if things go horribly wrong? My experience, writing about public education in New York City, suggests that many of the prescriptions imposed by the foundations have indeed resulted in spectacular failures.

It was the third most downloaded review (out of hundreds put up) last year. Diane Ravitch is America's most prominent historian of education, and currently its best.

While there I was exposed to works by Ayn Rand, Tom Sowell, and a host of other free-market thinkers, and I found myself largely convinced by their arguments. As graduation approached I wrote my thesis on free-market reforms in public education, taking the radical stance that public education was a failed experiment that should be abandoned.

All then would understand the fallacies of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (NCLB), the worst piece of legislation ever created in the history of American education, as well as the problems that arise from high stakes testing. It's all in the book; all they have to do is read. When Reagan began pushing "school choice," it came as really no surprise he was endorsing ideas of the renowned Milton Friedman. Some studies showed there were no major differences between privatized voucher schools and regular public schools. I feel empowered by what I learned from Dianne Ravitch, am invigorated to read more widely about education policy and to become an active advocate for real improvement in our public schools - and not just higher scores on standardized tests. Dianne Ravitch was instrumental in formulating and implementing No Child Left Behind but has now realized we have failed a generation of children by how this emphasis on Accountability and Testing was "corrupted" (her word). I am a former high school teacher and parent of two public elementary schoolers, so I am not an objective observer of American education, but who really is? As Ravich points out, education in America if not everywhere is critical to us all for our economy and democracy and culture - we are all stakeholders. For the first time, I understand how we got into the current perilous situation and what must done to reestablish the public schools as the foundation of our democratic system. As promised, I am replacing my brief summary with my full review now that it has been published in a major metropolitan newspaper. Personally favoring a conservative approach, like most teachers actually do (if might surprise many readers that teachers are generally a conservative bunch), the ideas suggested by the corporate world sounded appealing. Ravitch explains in her new book how wrong she was and how the urge to support change veered in the wrong direction.

About the Author:

It's one thing to say that reforms haven't produced the huge gains that their advocates promised, and Dr Ravitch summons up an ample amount of research to achieve that. CERAMIC DOG BOWLS.