Friday, March 8, 2013

Ravitch forms advocacy group to counter Rhee and other school reformers

Ravitch forms advocacy group to counter Rhee and other school reformers:


Ravitch forms advocacy group to counter Rhee and other school reformers

ravitch
(DianeRavitch.com)
Diane Ravitch, the education historian who has become the leader of a national movement opposing corporate-inspiredschool reform, has formed an advocacy group as a counter to Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and like-minded organizations that are pushing standardized test-based and other changes in education policy.
The Network for Public Education will connect organizations  focused on fighting school closings, high-stakes standardized testing and other reforms and endorse and rate political candidates based on their positions on education.
Ravitch is a research professor at New York University, a former assistant secretary of education and the author of a number of books, including the best-selling “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” an important critique of modern school reform. She has a new book coming out later this year on the privatization of public education.
Here is a Q&A I did with Ravitch about why she set up the group and what she hopes to accomplish:
Why did you set this up?
In the past few years, the damage wreaked on public schools by a very small number of very wealthy people has accelerated. Millions of dollars have poured into state and local