The Death and Life of the Great American School System

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The Death and Life of the Great American School System
AuthorDiane Ravitch
SubjectEducation reform
PublisherBasic Books
Publication date
March 2, 2010
Pages283
ISBN9780465014910
OCLC716862891
Preceded byEdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon[1] 
Followed byReign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools[2] 

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education is a non-fiction book by Diane Ravitch, originally published in 2010 by Basic Books,[3] with revised and expanded versions reprinted over the years.[4][5]

Summary

Ravitch is a "distinguished historian of public schools"[6] who served under both President George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, worked for many years promoting and implementing the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) compulsory standards-based education reform.[6][7] After reading a major 2006 report, Ravitch began to experience an "intellectual crisis" and had become skeptical of the "potential benefits of testing, accountability, choice, and markets." The book is a "passionate plea to preserve and renew public education."[8]

By 2007, school choice, standardized testing and accountability were promoted by the "educational establishment." Ravitch writes that these policies were "degrading the intellectual capacity of students."[6]

The 2010 Publisher's summary on WorldCat called her book a "passionate plea to preserve and renew public education."[8]

Background

The title refers to Jane Jacobs's best-known and most influential work,[9] her 1961 nonfiction, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, in which she lay the blame for the urban decay of America's cities on misguided 20th century urban planning policies.[10]

Reviews

In his March 2010 review in The New York Times, Alan Wolfe, wrote that he admired Ravitch's "intellectual honesty" and "open-mindedness in seeing what the data really tells us." However, he doubted it would be enough to counterbalance the fact that President Obama and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan, were promoting "reforms relying on testing and choice, despite fresh data calling their benefits into question."[11] The New York Times review called it the "most damning criticism" of the role some "philanthropic institutions sometimes play" in American society. Ravitz cautioned that the Gates Foundation gives "grants to almost every major think tank and advocacy group in the field of education, leaving no one willing to criticize its vast power and unchecked influence."[11]

A 2010 NPR review called the book "terrific and timely".[6]

Chester Finn Jr, who co-founded the Educational Excellence Network (EEI) in 1981 with Ravitch,[12]: 3 [13] reviewed the book, and wrote that "I agree about the curriculum part but not much else."[14]

The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss, wrote that Ravitch's "credibility with conservatives is exactly why it would be particularly instructive for everyone...to read The Death and Life of the Great American School System..[8]

References

  1. ^ Ravitch, Diane (2007). EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. ISBN 978-1-4166-0575-1.
  2. ^ Ravitch, Diane (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools. New York. ISBN 978-0385350884.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Ravitch, Diane (2010). The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (1st ed.). New York: Basic Books. ISBN 9780465014910. OCLC 716862891.
  4. ^ Ravitch, Diane (2011). The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Revised and expanded ed.). New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-02557-2. OCLC 939175210.
  5. ^ Ravitch, Diane (2016). The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Revised and expanded ed.). New York: Basic Books. ISBN 9780465036585. OCLC 920018218.
  6. ^ a b c d Altschuler, Glenn C. (March 16, 2010). "The 'Great American School System' Flunks Out". NPR. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  7. ^ Klein, Alyson (April 11, 2015). "No Child Left Behind: An Overview". Education Week. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c Publishers summary. March 2, 2010. OCLC 716862891. Retrieved January 23, 2020 – via WorldCat Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) global cooperative.
  9. ^ Douglas, Martin (April 26, 2006). "Jane Jacobs, Urban Activist, Is Dead at 89". The New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  10. ^ "Jane Jacobs' Radical Legacy". Peter Dreier. Summer 2006. Archived from the original on September 28, 2006. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  11. ^ a b Wolfe, Alan (May 14, 2010). "The Education of Diane Ravitch". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  12. ^ Education Reform 1995-1996 (PDF) (Report). Indianapolis, IN: Educational Excellence Network (EEI) and the Hudson Institute. August 1996. p. 71. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
  13. ^ The state of the nation's public schools: a conference report. Bloomington, Indiana: Phi Delta Kappa, Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL), Educational Excellence Network. 1993. ISBN 978-0-87367-461-4.
  14. ^ Finn, Chester E. Jr. (March 2, 2003). "School's Out". Forbes. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
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