Education Reform – Diane Ravitch

Departing from the ideas of both Rhee and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute’s reports, I would like to turn to other print resources. The first of these is The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch. (2010) In eleven chapters, Dr. Ravitch lays out what for me have been the most coherent and reasonable agreements that I have read on education reform.

Highlights include the first chapter, where Ravitch exposes her metaphysical journey from believer to skeptic. Where she had once supported and argued for reforms including “testing, accountability, choice, and markets, I now found myself experiencing some profound doubts about these same ideas.” (p.1) In the following chapters, she goes on to

“explain why I have concluded that most of the reform strategies that school districts, state officials, the Congress, and federal officials are pursuing, that mega-rich foundations are supporting, and that editorial boards are applauding are mistaken.” (p.14)

Dr. Ravitch guides the reader from the genesis of the modern reform movement when A Nation at Risk was published in 1983 (p. 24) to the current environment dominated by No Child Left Behind. She succinctly contrasts the two visions by stating that while

“A Nation at Risk was animated by a vision of a good education as the foundation of a better life for individuals and for our democratic society… No Child Left Behind had no vision other than improving test scores in reading and math.” (p. 29)

Risk is a vision of holistic curriculum, but NCLB is a cul-de-sac of data.

Ravitch devotes entire chapters to different reform models, including the business model, NCLB, accountability, and privately funded foundations (Gates, Walton, Broad). She considers each of these to be “fads” which “threaten to destroy public education.” (p. 222). The reason (other than that the data to supports these methods is spotty) is simple. The “constant reform churn is not the approach typically found in countries with successful schools.” (p. 224) While reformers “continue to look for short cuts and quick answers” Ravitch maintains that the “fundamentals of good education are to be found in the classroom, the home, the community, and the culture.” (p.225) To me, this makes perfect sense. A robust curriculum “road map” in every discipline can lead the way. (p. 236) “To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland ,” she writes “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
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Ravitch, D. (2010). The death and life of the great american school system: how testing and choice are undermining education . New York, NY: Basic Books.