Diane Ravitch: Q&A on her controversial new book
The new book by education historian and activist Diane Ravitch, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools,has debuted on The New York Times bestseller list in the non-fiction hardback category at No. 10. The book is, like Ravitch herself, highly controversial, praised by her supporters and attacked by her detractors.Here’s a Q * A I did by e-mail with Ravitch, the leader of the national movement that opposes corporate-influenced school reform, about why she wrote her new book, what she learned researching and writing it, and what she thinks about being called “mean” by her critics. If you want to read an excerpt of the book, click here.
Q) Why did you decide to write another book on education reform? How much further does this book take us from your 2010 bestseller, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.
A) The new book goes beyond what I wrote in “Death and Life.” D&L explained why I changed my mind about testing, accountability, competition, and choice after having supported them during the 1990s and until about 2006-07. I tried to document the evidence that persuaded me that these strategies were actually harming education and children. In the book, I open with a conversation I had with David Denby of The New Yorker. He said to me in April 2012, “Your critics say you have no solutions.” I
A) The new book goes beyond what I wrote in “Death and Life.” D&L explained why I changed my mind about testing, accountability, competition, and choice after having supported them during the 1990s and until about 2006-07. I tried to document the evidence that persuaded me that these strategies were actually harming education and children. In the book, I open with a conversation I had with David Denby of The New Yorker. He said to me in April 2012, “Your critics say you have no solutions.” I