"From her early advocacy for voluntary national standards in the 1980s to her tenure as Assistant Secretary of Education under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Diane Ravitch was an advocate the policies in the style of No Child Left Behind-high-stakes testing, school choice, privatization, and charter schools. Then, as she writes in this memoir, "I looked at what happened when they were put into practice, and I realized how wrong I was." By 2010, with the publication of The Death and Life of the Great American School System, she had repudiated her earlier beliefs, arguing instead for holistic education, stronger social welfare for pregnant women, and rebuking the wave of charter schools, privatization, and union busting that had hollowed out the public school system. "To use current parlance," she writes, "I went from being a staunch conservative to being woke." In this memoir of her life's work as a historian and policy advocate, Ravitch traces her ideological evolution. From championing evidence-based curriculum and instruction, notably the Core Knowledge movement and the Common Core initiative, to her leftward turn, arguing for stronger collective bargaining for teachers and more investment in public schools. In this book, she explains her journey-from her childhood in Houston to her education at Columbia to her stints in government in the Department of Education and the National Assessment Governing Board. Through candid reflections on decades of research on education outcomes, Ravitch makes the case for becoming, as she calls herself, "an activist on behalf of public schools.""-- Provided by publisher.
For many years, Diane Ravitch was among the countrys leading conservative thinkers on education. The cure for what ailed the school system was clear, she believed: high-stakes standardized testing, national standards, accountability, competition, charters, and vouchers. Then Ravitch saw what happened when these ideas were put into practice and recanted her long-held views. The problem was not bad teachers or failing schools, as conservatives claimed, but poverty. She denounced privatization as a hoax that did not help students and that harmed the public school system. She urged action to address the root causes of inequality.
In this intimate and timely memoir of her lifes work as a historian and advocate, Ravitch traces her ideological evolution. She recounts her personal and intellectual journey: her childhood in Houston, her years among the New York intelligentsia, her service in government, and her leftward turn. Ravitch shares how she came to hold conservative views and why she eventually abandoned them, exploring her switch from championing standards-based curriculum and standardized testing to arguing for greater investment in professional teachers and in public schools. Bringing together candid reflections with decades of research on education, Ravitch makes a powerful case for becoming, as she calls herself, an activist on behalf of public schools.
In this passionate and timely memoir of her lifes work as a historian and advocate, Diane Ravitch traces her ideological evolution.
