Diane Ravitch Talks School Reform, the Chicago Strike, and the "Testing Vampire":

Diane Ravitch Talks School Reform, the Chicago Strike, and the "Testing Vampire"

ABBY RAPOPORT

OCTOBER 1, 2012

Diane Ravitch is famous for two things: championing the education reform movement, then leading the opposition to it. The movement, which broadly supports an agenda that emphasizes student assessment (a.k.a. testing) and school choice (a.k.a. charter schools), has come to dominate American education policy. For the most part, both Democrats and Republicans now push to make school systems resemble economic markets. They want fewer teacher protections, more testing, and more charter schools for parents to choose from. President Obama's Department of Education, headed by education reformer Arne Duncan, shares many policy goals with those of George W. Bush's administration. Ravitch herself was once part of the movement, promoting student assessments and helping to create voluntary academic standards. After serving as Assistant Secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush, she held positions at the pro-school reform movement Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and was a member of the Koret Task Force at Stanford's Hoover Institution, which focuses on school choice and "accountability." But in 2009, Ravitch left