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Thursday, February 12, 2015

Lehigh lecturer says reformers out to destroy public education - The Morning Call

Lehigh lecturer says reformers out to destroy public education - The Morning Call:



Lehigh lecturer says reformers out to destroy public education

'Merit pay [for teachers] is a zombie idea,' says former U.S. assistant secretary of education

Lehigh University billed Tuesday night's lecture as "School Reform: Finding Common Ground," but the speaker made sure from the get-go where she stood, saying some so-called reformers really want to destroy public education.

Diane Ravitch, an author and the nemesis of pro-school voucher/pro-charter reformers, told the crowd of about 700 at Zoellner Arts Center that she finds little common ground with them.

"If someone wants to tear your house down, can you reach a compromise and tear down half of it?" said Ravitch, an assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush.

Lehigh originally sought to have a debate between Ravitch and Michelle Rhee, the former schools chancellor for Washington, D.C., but negotiations to get them on the same stage broke down, according to Gary M. Sasso, dean of the College of Education.

"Diane's opinion was that Michelle was a scaredy cat," he said to laughter from the largely pro-Ravitch crowd who gathered for the latest in the university's 2015 Distinguished Lecture Series.

Sasso said Lehigh plans to bring in a lecturer with opposing views at a later date.


So, Ravitch debated an imaginary education reformer for the first part of the forum. She scoffed at fears that America's public schools are failing.

She said that scores for National Assessment of Educational Progress tests — which she called the "gold standard of testing" — are the highest ever, and high school graduation rates are also at a historic high.

For the schools that are doing poorly, Ravitch blamed poverty and segregation.

"Did you know that the U.S. has the highest rate of child poverty of any advanced nation in the world?" she said.

Ravitch criticized the Common Core education standards, which she said are designed to fail a high percentage of students. High-stakes standardized testing has led to school districts narrowing the curriculum, she claimed.

The United States is not an economic powerhouse because of high standardized test scores, and countries that out-perform American students on standardized tests are not Lehigh lecturer says reformers out to destroy public education - The Morning Call: