the great american school system

i recently finished reading the death and life of the great american school system by diane ravitch. it is an engaging and critical look at some current trends in our education system.

ravitch is a historian of education at nyu and she speaks as someone who knows how educational fads have tended to impress many but help few. she herself used to support many of the methods and trends she now considers harmful. her tone is moderate and hopeful and she provides historical context for many of the current trends as well at data that analyzes the effect of different ways of reforming the school system.

a defender of both teachers and children, she is particularly critical of no child left behind. it's a horribly conceived policy that shows the extent to which those making the major decisions about our nation's education policy have no idea what they are doing.

some of the areas she addresses are:

charter schools - (if they are truly focusing on the neediest children and viewed as a supplement to the public school system, then great. otherwise they aren't helping out overall and probably aren't doing a great job either.

the testing movement - (testing is fine, but it isn't a comprehensive measure of improvement and success. typically perseveration on testing has let good curriculum and any subject other than math and reading slide into the background)

school choice - (if competition amongst public goods breeds success, why aren't choice advocates also supporting competitive police and fire departments?).

no child left behind - (which will, allegedly make every child proficient in math and reading by 2014. but it lets each state decide what that means and then craft its own test how well its students are doing. and its punitive measures have little positive effect on struggling schools. in short it's horrible.).

linking teacher pay to test scores - (test scores vary yearly with both good and bad teachers. there's no real way to determine, through testing, who the good and bad teachers are).

corporate sponsorship - (the gates foundation has thrown up some hugely expensive air balls in the education arena).

teacher's unions - (there is not really any evidence to show that states with teachers union do worse educationally than states that do not have them).

letting non-educators run schools and school systems - (would you let a goldman sachs executive be the foreman when building your new home?).

in short, ravitch thinks that education is hard work that does not come through quick fixes, radical changes in teaching methods, testing, or promises. she says in the final chapter:

"the most durable way to improve schools is to improve curriculum and instruction and to improve the conditions in which teachers work and children learn."

huh, that actually makes sense.

i appreciated getting a broader picture of what is happening in our nation's public schools and i learned a lot.

this is a great book and i hope that many others will read it too. if you want to have well informed opinions on school policy issues, this seems like a great place to start.

also, if you've seen waiting for superman, definitely read ravitch's response to the movie. it's so helpful.