Education historian Ravitch believes education support is a civic responsibility
| Education historian Diane Ravitch sat and spoke with acting Kentucky School Board Association executive director David Baird before her talk at the Galt House Saturday. / By Charlie White/The Courier-Journal |
Education historian Diane Ravitch knocked American education reformers who she said have fostered a bleak culture by over-testing students, lowering standards for teachers and draining taxpayer money from many public school districts for the proliferation of charter schools.
“I believe testing has to be used wisely ... it should not be used to rank and rate and discourage children,” Ravitch said Saturday, speaking to some of the nearly 1,000 school board members and superintendents who converged on Louisville’s Galt House from around the state for the annual conference of the Kentucky School Boards Association.
Ravitch — a 75-year-old New York University research professor in education, education historian and former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education — believes the federal government puts too much emphasis on testing.
Ravitch said no other country tests students in all grades.
“We are the most over-tested nation in the world,” she said.
This, in turn, has led some school districts to narrow their curriculums to focus on test subjects in lieu of art, music and other programs.
And judging teachers on students’ test scores,” Ravitch said, is “just about as good as rolling the dice or flipping a coin.”
Instead, she encourages educators, parents and lawmakers to think