The Death and Life of the Great American School System, (Paperback)

from ohernaes

What is wrong with American schools? Apparently, measurements become goals and people are not aware of their limitations, and so we might be better off without the measurements in the first place. This point should have come before over halfway into the book. Ravitch was for many years a member o...

from hcubic

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the bill that made No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. It was a culmination of sorts of tides that had been growing for years, through both the Clinton and Bush administrations, toward sweeping reform in US schools. Standards would now be higher, market force...

from rivkat

Mea culpa and cri de coeur of a former reformer who looked at the data and found that the popular solutions to America's educational woes were being pushed on schools despite the absence of evidence to support them and substantial evidence that a focus on testing math and reading harms the curric...

from MichaelDC

A great overview of the problems caused by a relentless focus on testing in American public schools. I learned a lot about the history of education; for example, charter schools started as a white response to desegregation in the South. Ravitch draws her conclusions so clearly and concisely that ...

from MichelleCH

Some excellent arguments for educational change are made, although overall this book has to be taken with a grain of salt. Ms. Ravitch is highly controversial having supported/constructed Bush's disastrous No Child Left Behind policy. I do give her credit for changing her viewpoint and in seeing ...