‘Reign of Error’ by Diane Ravitch
In December 2008, President-elect Barack Obama picked former Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan to be secretary of education and announced the decision at the Dodge Renaissance Academy in the city’s East Garfield Park neighborhood.
Obama’s choice of Dodge as the backdrop to introduce Duncan proved significant. The elementary school had undergone a transformation during Duncan’s stewardship of Chicago’s public schools and served as one of the centerpiece examples of Duncan’s brand of education reform. In 2002, Duncan boldly closed the chronically low-performing school, fired the teachers and handed the keys to the building to an outside nonprofit group. Opened again a year later, the school’s academic performance saw near-miraculous gains on state standardized tests, despite the fact that more than 90 percent of the students came from low-income families.
(Knopf) - ’Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools’ by Diane Ravitch