[Osta-board] Fwd: new book review from California

[bcarlsen]

This book may be of interest to you

TWO BAY AREA EVENTS FEATURING DIANE RAVITCH
Diane Ravitch will be discussing her newly released book, “The Death and
Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are
Undermining Education” at two upcoming local events.

 From the back cover of the book: “Diane Ravitch is one of the most important
public intellectuals of our time. In this powerful and deftly written book,
she takes on the big issues of American education today, fearlessly
articulating both the central importance of strong public education and the
central elements for strengthening our schools. Anyone who cares about
public education should read this book.” – Linda Darling-Hammond.

Ravitch will be appearing at the following Bay Area events:

►Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 5:30 PM at Stanford
School of Education Cubberley Lecture: Diane Ravitch will be introduced and
interviewed by Linda Darling-Hammond. This event is free and open to the
public. Location: Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education, 485 Lasuen
Mall, Stanford University

►Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 5:30 PM at UC Berkeley
Diane Ravitch will lecture and be interviewed by a panel of distinguished
guests. This event is hosted by the School of Education and is free and open
to the public. Location: Sibley Auditorium, School of Engineering, UC
Berkeley.

 From the Library Journal:
Diane Ravitch, the nation's foremost historian of education, warns that
national education policy is on a path to wrecking our cherished tradition
of public education.  In this remarkable book, she describes how such
strategies as accountability schemes based on questionable standardized
tests, merit pay for teachers based on gains on the same unreliable tests,
vouchers, and charter schools have been oversold as solutions for our
educational problems. Ravitch explains why she became persuaded by
accumulating evidence that policymakers are on the wrong track in pushing a
market model of reform that ignores the realities of the classroom. The more
they push these policies, she writes, the more they will harm our nation's
school system and undermine the quality of education.
Ravitch shows how President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program
("NCLB") has failed to improve education. The main result of NCLB has been
to turn our schools into testing factories. While children are trained to
take standardized tests, they do not gain the knowledge and skills that are
necessary components of a good education.  The federal "sanctions" and
"remedies" now mandated across the nation have unfairly stigmatized
thousands of schools and put them at risk of being closed and privatized.
The Obama administration has now adopted the same approach as the George W.
Bush administration, despite the lack of evidence that these "reforms" will
improve the quality of education.
Ravitch reviews the record of districts that claim to have achieved
"miracles," and finds that the alleged "miracles" vanish on close
examination. Not only are test scores in many states and districts inflated
by statistical game-playing and lowered standards, but the over-emphasis on
testing has all but eliminated the essential elements of a solid education,
including history, civics, science, the arts, geography, literature,
physical education, health education, and foreign languages.
Ravitch shows that privatization and deregulation of schools solve no
problems. Charter schools choose their students in lotteries, then have the
freedom to exclude (or "counsel out") those who don't test well. Many do not
accept a fair share of students with disabilities and those who are English
language learners. The regular public schools, by contrast, have to educate
everyone. Meanwhile, many charter managers pay themselves handsomely for
their services.  Ravitch demonstrates that charters on average do not get
better results than regular public schools.
The currently fashionable idea that teachers should be evaluated by their
students' test scores, Ravitch finds, is wrongheaded. She explains that the
research for this proposition is deeply flawed. The main consequence of this
approach, now a keystone of the Obama administration education plan, will be
to drive good teachers out of public education.
Ravitch argues that what is at stake is nothing less than the future of
public education, especially in our urban districts. Every student should
have a solid, well-balanced education that prepares them for the future. A
democratic society, she concludes, needs a healthy, vibrant public education
system, with good public schools in every neighborhood. On our current
course, the schools will be privatized, deregulated, and turned over to
entrepreneurs. Based on a careful review of the evidence, Ravitch says that
this course of action is unlikely to improve American education.
This is a classic and riveting story of good intentions gone terribly wrong.

About Diane Ravitch:
"Ravitch, former assistant secretary of education with over 40 years of
experience in educational policy, provides an important and highly readable
examination of the educational system, how it fails to prepare students for
life after graduation, and how we can put it back on track. Ravitch was once
a passionate advocate for the conservative policies of testing and
accountability, school choice, privatization, and business-style management,
all of which she here powerfully shows leave students trained to take tests
but not prepared to participate in the 21st-century economy. Changes she
suggests include curricula that emphasize what students need to learn over
test scores, having professional educators rather than politicians, business
leaders, and philanthropists run the system, and using charter schools to
help students most in need instead of allowing them to siphon off the best
students from public schools. VERDICT: Anyone interested in education should
definitely read this accessible, riveting book."
— Mark Bay, Library Journal (starred review)



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