EP 908 Education Thought Leader Changes Her Mind on School Reform Efforts

 Diane Ravitch, Ph.D, is a historian of education.  For decades now, she has written, lectured and been interviewed about her views on a range of subjects related to education reform, including standardized testing, vouchers, charter schools and accountability. Early on, she was a proponent of all of the above. She was part of the leadership team in George H. W. Bush’s education department.  While her views were categorized as conservative or neoconservative throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s on these subjects, at the start of this century her scholarship brought her to a different place on virtually all that she had previously espoused.  It is hard to imagine how difficult it was to admit she was wrong, having been so public, and influential, in her views.  In the end, she came to a few simple, but profound, conclusions–public monies are for public schools, family wealth is the greatest determinant of student achievement, and adherence to color-blind policies assures that the status quo remains in place.  She also believes that the No Child Left Behind effort, and other modern reforms, measure only certain skills in reading and math, but leave other important subjects in a lesser tier.  And that in the end, it is content–narratives and stories–not skills, that ignites the love of learning.  In her latest book, “An Education: How I Changed My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else,” Ravitch is unsparing in sharing both the incredible changes she has undergone throughout her life and in how she now views her life’s work

Podcast: Play in new window | Download