Education expert has suggestions for Black
By Anna Gustafson
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| Diane Ravitch, an educational historian, poses with her best-selling book before speaking at St. John's University this week about Cathie Black, who was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be the next schools chancellor. Photo by Anna Gustafson |
Diane Ravitch, a leading educational historian who spoke at St. John’s University this week, had some advice for the woman selected to be the city’s next schools chancellor.
Respect teachers, work closely with parents, do not close schools and do not locate charter schools inside current school buildings were some of the actions Ravitch urged Cathie Black to undertake in her remarks to the St. John’s biannual Carol Gresser Forum Lecture Monday.
“She has to listen beyond the circle of people around the leader who tend to be yes men and women,” Ravitch said, referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who chose Black. “You must listen to these parents and guardians and hear what they have to say. You work for them now, you don’t work for the mayor anymore.”
More than 300 people packed into St. John’s D’Angelo Center to hear Ravitch, whose most recent book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education,” has landed on The New York Times’ best-seller list.
Ravitch, a historian of education, has written 10 books on education and from 1991-93 was the assistant secretary of education and counselor to U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the first President George Bush’s administration. She is now a research professor of education at New York University and serves as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization in Washington, D.C.
The Carol Gresser Forum Lecture is named for the former president of the city Board of Education and a Douglaston resident
Respect teachers, work closely with parents, do not close schools and do not locate charter schools inside current school buildings were some of the actions Ravitch urged Cathie Black to undertake in her remarks to the St. John’s biannual Carol Gresser Forum Lecture Monday.
“She has to listen beyond the circle of people around the leader who tend to be yes men and women,” Ravitch said, referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who chose Black. “You must listen to these parents and guardians and hear what they have to say. You work for them now, you don’t work for the mayor anymore.”
More than 300 people packed into St. John’s D’Angelo Center to hear Ravitch, whose most recent book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education,” has landed on The New York Times’ best-seller list.
Ravitch, a historian of education, has written 10 books on education and from 1991-93 was the assistant secretary of education and counselor to U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the first President George Bush’s administration. She is now a research professor of education at New York University and serves as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization in Washington, D.C.
The Carol Gresser Forum Lecture is named for the former president of the city Board of Education and a Douglaston resident