Reign of Error” Ends Here: Diane Ravitch and the Facts of “Education Reform”
Posted: September 17, 2013 in "Race to the Top", "Reign of Error", At-risk kids, Common Core Curriculum, Diane Ravitch, Education ReformTags: "Reign of Error", charter schools, Diane Ravitch, Public school
0
When it comes to education reform I’m a struggling optimist. The news is rarely good, with a steady diet from the media of school failures, lukewarm test scores, the self-serving demands of teacher unions, and even threats to our national security.
So what to make of Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools? The title itself seems to promise nothing but more bad news.
But this book is not a lament. Instead, in lean, measured prose Diane Ravitch addresses the many erroneous claims made by the “education reform” movement and then presents a realistic and humane plan for true educational improvement.
Ravitch doesn’t, however, just say that the reformers’ claims are wrong. That’s too easy, and Ravitch refuses the easy way out. She recognizes that the public is confused. For over a decade, it has been told by the government that our children’s schools are in a dangerously sorry state. The Bush Administration’s major tactic in presenting education reform (among other issues) was to repeatedly insist that something was “fact” despite solid contrary evidence until the public believed it. Unfortunately the Obama Administration has continued this same tactic in its education agenda.
In an effort to clear up some of the public’s confusion and to address the reformers’ accusations and claims, Reign of Error examines a wide variety of topics such as who constitutes what Ravitch calls “the corporate reformers,” the validity of high-stakes testing, the expanding achievement gap, charter schools and vouchers, and local school