Diane Ravitch: No Child Left Behind, Reform Killing Public Education
Posted March 25, 2010
In the spring of 1991, education scholar Diane Ravitch got a phone call from Education SecretaryLamar Alexander inviting her to lunch in Washington. He asked her to become an assistant secretary, and—excited by this high-profile opportunity—Ravitch accepted and stayed until 1993. Since then, as a writer and blogger, she has become known as an advocate of reform via school choice, charter schools, and accountability. But to the surprise of many, Ravitch now opposes those strategies in her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.Ravitch recently spoke with U.S. News about her new views. Excerpts:
Why have you changed your mind about the No Child Left Behind Act?
First of all, I was not an architect of No Child Left Behind, as some people seem to think. But along with about 90 percent of the House and the Senate, [I thought] it sounded like a good idea. Who wants to leave any child behind? So, yeah, I supported it with the hopes that it would lead to improvements. And I've concluded, based on the evidence, that it has not.
How has No Child Left Behind failed?
It has encouraged the states to dumb down the standards by saying that every state would have its own definition of proficiency, every state would use its own test, by setting a deadline of 2014—which is
