Diane Ravitch Quotes about School

American Education has a long history of infatuation with fads and ill-considered ideas. The current obsession with making our schools work like a business may be the worst of them, for it threatens to destroy public

American Education has a long history of infatuation with fads and ill-considered ideas. The current obsession with making our schools work like a business may be the worst of them, for it threatens to destroy public education. Who will Stand up to the tycoons and politicians and tell them so?

Diane Ravitch

Education, Business, School

Diane Ravitch (2016). “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education”, p.236, Basic Books

Testing is not a substitute for curriculum and instruction. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools.

Diane Ravitch

Children, School, Curriculum

Diane Ravitch (2011). “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education”, p.118, Basic Books

Unless the schools provide our children with a vision of human possibility that enlightens and empowers them with knowledge and taste, they will simply play their role in someone else's marketing schemes. Unless they understand deeply the sources of our democracy, they will take it for granted and fail to exercise their rights and responsibilities.

Diane Ravitch

Children, School, Responsibility

Privatizing our public schools makes as much sense as privatizing the fire department or or the police department

Diane Ravitch

School, Fire, Police

The foundations demand that public schools and teachers be held accountable for performance, but they themselves are accountable to no one. If their plans fail, no sanctions are levied against them. They are bastions of unaccountability.

Diane Ravitch

Teacher, School, Foundation

Diane Ravitch (2011). “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education”, p.200, Basic Books

When you succeed at keeping almost everyone in school, you must figure out ways to educate everyone you keep in school.

Diane Ravitch

School, Way, Succeed

The ladder was there, from the gutter to the university, and for those stalwart enough to ascend it, the schools were a boon and a path out of poverty.

Diane Ravitch

School, Gutters, Ladders

Diane Ravitch (2000). “The Great School Wars: A History of the New York City Public Schools”, p.244, JHU Press

I support charters, but the right kind of charters. I support charters that support kids who have the highest needs. A charter should be targeting students who are in serious trouble. It should serve students who didn't succeed in public schools when it can help them. Or, at least, charters should agree to accept similar proportions of the kids with the highest needs.

Diane Ravitch

School, Kids, Support

Source: www.motherjones.com

If charter schools are not more successful on average than the public schools they replace, what is accomplished by demolishing public education? What is the rationale for authorizing for-profit charters or charter management organizations with high-paid executives, since their profits and high salaries are paid by taxpayers' dollars?

Diane Ravitch

School, Successful, Average

Diane Ravitch (2013). “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools”, p.219, Vintage