Diane Ravitch: No Child Left Behind Has Left US Schools with Legacy of “Institutionalized Fraud”

Run time: 08:41 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSsip4cLDL0   Posted on YouTube: March 05, 2010 By YouTube Member: ThisBoyTV Views on YouTube: 109   Posted on DU: March 15, 2010 By DU Member: democracy1st Views on DU: 596

 
Leading Education Scholar Diane Ravitch: No Child Left Behind Has Left US Schools with Legacy of “Institutionalized Fraud” Pt2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CPl2Oup7FM

As the Obama administration touts No Child Left Behind and the “Race to the Top” competition for school grants, we speak to leading education scholar and former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch. She’s long been known as an advocate of No Child Left Behind, charter schools, standardized testing, and using the free market to improve schools. But she’s had a radical change of heart, as chronicled in her latest book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Ravitch says, “The evidence says No Child Left Behind was a failure, and charter schools aren’t going to be any better.”

Guest:

Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary of Education and counselor to Education Secretary Lamar Alexander under President George H.W. Bush and appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board under President Clinton. She is the author of over twenty books, is research professor of education at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her latest book is The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

Full Transcript:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/5/protests



The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Great-American-School-System/dp/0465014917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268647114&sr=8-1

It's great so far!

I was "discussing" this very thing last night with someone who is a doctoral candidate in education. He defended NCLB with the talking point of accountability.

I heard this woman on NPR. She supported "no child left behind," and now she writes a book against it.
I believe in the public school system. Yet I think that it has gotten screwed up in a lot of ways.
There has to be accountability. Basic math, English, and reading standards have to be established. Nationwide, not just by state or municipality.
I have seen the public school system get cluttered up with a lot of non-essentials:
Mission statements--meaningless
In-service workshops. Really, teachers bring their knitting.
Emphasis on sports. I'm not talking about gym. I'm talking about the football, basketball, competitions that drain the budget. Do they "keep kids in school?" Maybe some, but the non-athletic scholars are often left to feel inadequate.
Curricula like home economics. Antiquated.
So if the teachers are spending too much time "teaching to the test" in math, English, and reading, let it be. That's what I want from schools.