The author and historian calls “the narrative of failure” of public education a hoax. Ravitch takes on corporate reform agenda Diane Ravitch wowed the crowd at Occidental College on October 1 when she discussed her most recent book, Reign of Error, which argues that public education is not failing—despite what the corporate reformers say. In her fast-paced, hour-plus speech, Ravitch called out a series of hoaxes being perpetrated on public education. Among them: high-stakes standardized tests, teacher evaluations based on test scores, Parent Trigger and “choice” efforts that turn parents into consumers instead of citizens, trying to improve schools by ring teachers and closing campuses, and the unregulated expansion of charters schools. The biggest hoax of all: that public education is failing. “Corporate reform is based on the idea that public education is a vast failure,” Ravitch said. “The whole narrative of failure is a hoax. Our schools are very successful except where there is high poverty and racial segregation. Schools are not broken. The system is not broken.” Most educators know Ravitch’s story: For many years—including her time as an assistant secretary of education under then-President George H.W. Bush—she was one of the strongest advocates for the corporate reform agenda. “I was a strong supporter of testing, accountability, choice, competition,” Ravitch said. “I lost the faith. I concluded that the things I supported were wrong.” After her “conversion experience,” as she calls it, she became one of the nation’s most passionate and vocal critics of corporate reform. Ravitch concluded her talk with a look at what would level the playing eld between high-income and low-income schools. The solutions she offered: free prenatal care for expectant mothers; universal early childhood education; reduced class size for struggling children; full enriched curriculum with arts, physical education, and more; and “wraparound” services at schools, such as health care clinics. Here’s what else she had to say on key topics: No Child Left Behind: “No Child Left Behind is a hoax. They knew the goal of all children pro cient by 2014 was impossible. Now people have been red, schools closed for a law that no one believed in when it passed.” Corporate reform: “Reform has turned somehow into a process that includes budget cuts and ring teachers, librarians, counselors, and social workers and turning public money over to private groups. Many principals and teachers feel they have become public enemies. Sometimes it feels the goal is to eliminate public education altogether.” Graduation rates: “Time, Newsweek covers will tell you that the graduation rate is a scandal. Not true. They are the highest they have been in history—78 percent get high school diplomas in four years and 90 percent of people ages 18-24 have high school diplomas.” Profession of teaching: “[Corporate reform] has so demoralized the teaching corps that no one wants to be a teacher. The number of students in teacher prep has dropped from 77,000 to 25,000. They see the disrespect visited on teachers by Diane Ravitch launched a withering attack on corporate reform and the myth of failing schools at Occidental College on October 1. Her talk in support of her book, Reign of Error, was sponsored by LAUSD School Board member Steve Zimmer. reformers. It is not strengthening teaching—it is destroying it and it must stop.” Teachers’ unions: “Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, where you have the highest [student test] scores, you also have the highest unionization. States at the bottom with the lowest scores have the lowest levels.” Value of testing: “Scores re ect the opportunity to learn, not the capacity to learn. Standardized tests are not the tools of equity. There is a virtue to testing when it is used diagnostically to see how a student is doing. That’s what they are for. Months later, the tests have no value, yet they want to use them to rank and rate teachers.” Advice to dispirited educators: “Corporate reformers are trying to turn teaching into a job for temps. Hold onto that part of you that says this isn’t right. This will pass. Have courage, the will to carry on, and know we’re doing
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 19:58:45 +0000