This from the former assistant education secretary under H.W.

[Fire1]

and initially supported NCLB and pushed unsuccessfully for national academic standards under H.W. Bush. Ravitch now realizes that BUSINESS principles WILL NOT WORK FOR SCHOOL REFORM!!

"Duncan's biggest idea is market-oriented. He seeks to provide incentives for reform, offering billions of dollars to states and school systems willing to take the risks to solve problems that have VEXED GENERATIONS OF EDUCATORS."

http://www.educationnews.org/ednews_today/63949.html

[MannyGoldstein]

1. She Was Interviewed At Length on NPR About This

Interesting interview.

As I keep saying - Obama is basically a doctrinaire, evidence-be-damned Reagan Republican.

[Fire1]

2. "evidence be damned Reagan," apparently. I'm going to

buy this book. Sounds like an interesting read.

[tonysam]

3. I just bought it last week.

What little I have read of it seems like it is a very good book.

[mzteris]

4. but but but - she still likes

charters, choice, accountability and merit pay?!?!

[Fire1]

5. You need to read that link, again. She called PO's affinity for

charters, "puzzling."

[mzteris]

6. eh? PO?

President Obama??

Actually . . .

"She says at the beginning of the book that she used to think "that certain managerial and structural changes--that is, choice, charters, merit pay, and accountability--would help to reform our schools." At the end of the book she still accepts efforts by people she admires to pursue choice, charters, merit pay and accountability, as long as they do it better than it has been done the last several years. The big change she suggests, a greater emphasis on a rich and well-planned curriculum at every school, fits into just about everyone's master plans." http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/03/post_2.html

[Fire1]

7. Uh, I was referring to the link I posted in the OP. I'll read the

book myself to determine "what she says" and in what context before relying on the critique of Jay Mathews.

[mzteris]

8. in her words -

"I am not opposed to testing, but to the misuse of testing to punish people and close schools.

What did I abandon? The hope that choice and accountability could magically achieve the ends that I believe in. I am not opposed to choice—everyone should be free to choose another school if the school their child attends is not right for the child. And I do not oppose accountability, so long as it is used to help teachers, principals, and schools do a better job, not to punish them."

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2010/03/what_i_did_not_recant_or_aband.html

[Fire1]

9. Like I said. I'll read her book and determine 'what she says' and

in what context but this sounds closer to what I've read. Btw, this doesn't sound like a proponent of charters.

[mzteris]

10. possibly - but she's not completely OPPOSED to them, either. n/t

[Fire1]

11. You clearly seem to be a proponent, not that it matters. It doesn't

appear that she DOES, either!

[mzteris]

12. I'm a Democrat! I support CHOICE!! n/t

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[radical noodle]

14. The last paragraph in her book

"At the present time, public education is in peril. Efforts to reform public education are, ironically, diminishing its quality and endangering its very survival. We must turn our attention to improving the schools, infusing them with the substance of genuine learning and reviving the conditions that make learning possible."
Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School Syste

[mzteris]

15. exactly.

I strongly support schools that DO those things!

[Fire1]

16. I think we can all agree on that. n/t