"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Friday, March 19, 2010

If You Want Diane Ravitch to Come to Your School

She's too busy, sorry--but here's the next best thing: her presentation and dialogue at EPI on March 15.

Invite your teacher and parent friends to get together and watch this. Then read the book. Then get active to save public education before it is too late. This is the most important book for teachers and parents in many years, mainly because it encapsulates much of the core message of what people like Bracey, Rothstein, Berliner, Meier, and other supporters of public schools have been saying for so long without much attention outside the small and committed groups of resistors to the corporate takeover of American education.

Thanks to Ravitch, the truth has just gone mass market (most likely NYTimes Bestseller List), and nothing could be sweeter than the squirming among the corporate leeches and snake oil salesmen who have taken public education to the brink of destruction. Watch it all at EPI:

How testing and choice are undermining education (event)
March 15, 2010

Watch and listen to the entire event below

In her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System (Basic Books), noted education historian and former (under President George H.W. Bush) Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch repudiates her earlier support of No Child Left Behind's standardized testing regime and the law's endorsement of charter schools as a solution to the shortcomings of American education. As Ravitch recently stated on National Public Radio, "I was known as a conservative advocate of many of these policies. But I've looked at the evidence and I've concluded they're wrong."

Presenters

  • Diane Ravitch, Author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System
  • Bill Galston, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
  • Carmel Martin, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education
  • Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers

Audio and Video

Listen to this entire event
Listen (streaming) | Download MP3 (97 min., 89 MB)

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