Patrick Walsh teaches in a public school in Harlem. He reviewed “Reign of Error” here.
I love this review!
He writes:
“As I write, historian Diane Ravitch is simultaneously the most feared and revered figure in American education. To the corporate education reformers, a group Ravitch has come to identify as privatizers of our public schools, she is a colossal and authoritative thorn in the side. Composed of billionaires Bill Gates, Eli Broad, members of the Walton family of Walmart fame, more hedge fund managers than can be named, and the most powerful political figures in the country including Barack Obama, these are people who are very used to getting their way. And get their way they have: For the past 10 years the privatizers have utterly dominated educational discourse, successfully forging untested and radical changes upon the system, using their virtually unlimited wealth to purchase anything and anyone who stood in their way while funding front groups by the dozens to block the way of others.
“But Ravitch is a conscience that can’t be purchased. She is also an apostate. While serving as U.S. assistant secretary of education under George H.W. Bush, Ravitch was a proponent of standardized testing and “accountability,” which constitutes the base of much education reform. But in time Ravitch did something unique in the Brave New World of education: She looked for evidence of success in the various reform policies and found fraud and failure. This led her to a period of radical reconsideration.
“Then Ravitch did something extremely courageous and rare: She publicly admitted she had made errors in judgment. Even more, she concluded that some of the policies she had championed were actually harmful.
“To the privatizers, Ravitch represents the authority and integrity they are quietly and desperately trying to discredit or purge altogether.
“To reformers, Ravitch remains more than a problem. As the reforms themselves grow ever more strident, standardized and, yes, totalitarian in structure, Ravitch embodies the institutional memory that no totalitarian system can abide.
“This is but one of the reasons that Ravitch has become so revered by teachers who bear the brunt of the reforms. Teachers bear witness to what the reforms are doing to their profession and to the students in their charge. For teachers, politically orphaned, Ravitch is a crusader who has done what their politicians, and, sadly, even their unions, have refused to do. She has spoken truth to power to the richest people and the most powerful political figures in the United States who have aligned themselves with the ruthless drive to privatize our schools, the most vital public trust in this nation.”
Please read the rest of the review. It is beautiful.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope he teaches writing. From God’s lips to his hand.
Like.
I like the way he notes teachers are politically orphaned, and that you, Dr. Ravitch, are perhaps the strongest one pointing out that truth, without apology. And so how can teachers be orphaned and our students not? It doesn’t add up, as we are well aware.
Absolutely a wonderful review. I especially like and agree with his thoughts at the end of the review.
“Reign of Error” is essential reading for all parents of school-age children in America who want to understand what is happening with their student’s education and why. Why does Bill Gates have more say over their child’s education than they do? How is high-stakes testing driving their child’s favorite teacher out of the profession and making their kid into a nervous, joyless wreck? And because the education privatization campaign includes every despicable tactic and trick that can be used to shred and circumvent our legislative processes, “Reign of Error” should be read by every person in this country because what Ravitch is ultimately describing is an attack on democracy itself.”
“For teachers, politically orphaned, Ravitch is a crusader who has done what their politicians, and, sadly, even their unions, have refused to do.”
Just last night I cried in my husband’s arms trying to explain to him that I am mourning the loss of joy I once had for teaching, and for the overtesting and core curriculum my own children are suffering through. So many of us are, and sadly, most still don’t know why. It is taking him a long time to understand what we are going through. I told him that Diane is the only one in my world who stands up for teachers and children. There are still incredible numbers of school board members, administrators, and parents who are unaware. Some of my administrators tell me they do not believe in “the conspiracy theory.” It is disheartening.
She is our rock, our voice against bullies, our reminder not to quit – even when our mental & physical health are affected. Diane is the voice of calm in a man-made disaster. Seeing her name in my inbox is a reminder that someone out there cares and is fighting for us & along side us with truth and facts. She gives us hope on the days when we need it most, and sadly those days are more & more often.
Great review. Incredible book.
Please like & share this Parents Across America – Suburban Philadelphia facebook page if you are in the Philadelphia area:
https://www.facebook.com/paaphillyburbs
Now if only the Presidential candidates who support privatization and charter schools could realize that these things are not improving K- 12 education. After Barack Obama promised us Linda Darling Hammond philosophy and gave us charter school promoter, high stakes tester Arne Duncan, I am dreading the next Presidential election. Elizabeth Warren saying she won’t run was depressing.
“For teachers, politically orphaned, Ravitch is a crusader who has done what their politicians, and, sadly, even their unions, have refused to do.”
If there was one short quote that summed up why I continue to come to this site daily, this would be it. Thank, you, Diane, for standing in the gap.
Dear Dr. Ravtich:
Clearly, you have made a number of grave errors.
The holy apostolic Church of Deform sometimes speaks as mere mortals speak, and such statements may be true or false. However, the divinely appointed Masters at Achieve at times speak to us ex cathedra and issue statements of Doctrine such as the following:
“U.S. schools are failing.”
“Standardized tests validly measure mathematics and reading ability.”
“High-stakes test increase mathematics and reading ability.”
“Cut scores are not arbitrary.”
“High-stakes test scores are valid and reliable measures of teacher quality.”
“Value-added measurement improves teacher quality over time.”
“Voucher programs improve student outcomes.”
“Charter schools have better student outcomes than do public schools.”
“All children are parts for the economic machine, which requires that they be identically milled.”
So, first, you clearly made a fundamental error in thinking that these were propositions to be judged according to mere reason and evidence–that the way to think about these was to consider, via the rational faculty, the relevant facts. You failed to understand that these are Doctrines of the Deform Church. Knowledge of the Truth of these comes through Revelation, not through empirical study and rational thought. If the facts APPEAR, overwhelmingly, to contradict these Truths, so much the worse for the facts. There is only one possible explanation: The DECEIVER has systematically altered APPEARANCES in this corrupt and changeable world to make the True seem unwarranted and the False warranted. To which will you give your allegiance? To mere facts about students, teachers, schools, tests, and other aspects of a fallen and fallible world or to the Revelation to Achieve? Surely you understand the principle of The Infallibility of Revelation to Acheive–to the divinely appointed Keepers of the Truth.
Second, and this principle follows from the Principle of the Infallibility of the Revelation to Achieve: the Truth is unchanging, and so, once acquainted with the Truth, you must allow no evidence, however substantial, however overwhelming it may seem, to breed within your mind cankerous Doubt. There is the Revelation, which is Truth. All else is mere Opinion, based on the deceptive appearances of a fallible, fallen world. And because the Truth is unchanging, so must be your Faith. This is the Principle of the Eternality of the Revelation to Achieve, which existed in the beginning and for all time, worlds without end, and so is true despite whatever might be seen in a fallen world. That you changed your mind based on overwhelming evidence is, therefore, a clear sign that you have failed to understand this second principle and, importantly, to practice it in your life.
Third, the very fact that acceptance of these doctrines is difficult given the overwhelming evidence against them is a Test of Faith. If it were easy to believe what appear to be blatant absurdities, then what sort of test of your faith would that be? This is where the Principle of Submission comes into play. You must submit your mere reason and your mere ability to make observations and subject propositions to empirical tests, to the will of the Masters. In other words, you must believe the absurd not because it makes sense to do so but because it is so very difficult for any rational person to do so. This willingness to believe the irrational proves your commitment to the Faith. In fact, it is the PRIMARY TEST of commitment to the Faith of the Deform Church.
If, then, you will simply make a full confession of your errors and accept these principles:
The Principle of the Infallibility of the Revelation to Achieve,
The Principle of the Eternality of the Revelation to Achieve, and
The Principle of Submission
you may be admitted, again, to Holy Orders. Otherwise, you will be consigned, forever, to a place among the rabble of intellectuals, scholars, scientists, and rational persons generally who oppose the Deforms and forever anathema to the Meritocracy, which derives its place in the order of the universe not from some sort of mere ability but by divine right–the same right that, for example, flowed through Achieve to appoint David Coleman and Susan Pimentel absolute monarchs of education in the English language arts.
P.S. I left out one of the doctrines:
“Learning is boring and no fun and must be externally motivated by fear of failure on summative tests.”
Those not inclined toward medieval thinking might, instead, read Dr. Ravtich’s two recent books.
Robert D. Shepherd: I am shocked and dismayed that you have ignored the High Holy Church of Testolatry and forgone a worshipful, er, an objective description of the efficacious magic of their Sacred EduMetric mantras.
For example, you surely couldn’t have forgotten on purpose one of its derivative theologians, Dr. Steve Perry, whose “Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t” [alas! it originated with rapper Jay-Z not “America’s Most Trusted Educator”] is on the lips on every edufraud and educrat and their accountabully underlings.
That said, same old same old: in days of olde, when liars were bold, and statistics weren’t invented, they—wait, what did the frauds and cowards and deformers of those days do?
“In ancient times they had no statistics so they had to fall back on lies.” [Stephen Leacock]
Ah, simpler but [in their twisted way] more brutally honest times…
😎
It is often said that it’s easy to lie with statistics. It’s not. It’s easy to lie with bad statistics and to foist false conclusions from bad statistics upon those who are not statisticians. Did you know that the nature/nurture questions has been definitively settled? The Journal of Improbable Results reported on a study in which sets of genetically identical twins, one of which, in each pair, had been stillborn, where given a series of psychometric tests. The stillborn twins performed very poorly on these tests. Therefore, since they were genetically identical, the difference in performance must have been due to nurture.
The data-based arguments of the Church of Deform rarely rise above that level.
correction: that would have been The Journal of Irreproducible Results
Men lie. Perry certainly has the personal experience to back that one up.
AMEN, Brother Robert!
Thank you, Brother Duane!
Diane Ravitch is one of my few heroes. She had the courage to follow where the facts and her moral principles, based on the consequences of the deforms, led. She is a model to us all of courage, integrity, intellect, and decency.
Importantly, of decency. The current deforms are child abuse, and Diane Ravitch’s has been tireless in her efforts to stem this abuse and to defend alternative, humane approaches to the education of the young.
My favorite line….
“Uncritically and ceaselessly echoed by Time magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, PBS, NBC and the entire corporate media, this malicious fairy tale, for many, became as self-evident, if as vaporous, as the belief that all men are created equal. “Reign of Error” reveals this narrative, better than any other work yet written, to be nothing less than a well-crafted lie.”
well said!
I hope that people will not conclude, based on my satire, above, that I am some sort of knee-jerk skeptic. I am not. I believe, in fact, that Hamlet was right when he said, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” And so I would not dream of pronouncing, arrogantly, about the ultimate nature of things, though I dearly love speculation about such matters.
Were you raised Catholic?
No, Duane, but I taught in a Catholic school among nuns who were simply amazing–knowledgeable, gentle, kind, passionate, of great good humor, humane, incredibly hard working, and dedicated to their students. Like a lot of teachers I know who are now being told by emotionally challenged idiot amateurs how to do their jobs.
I have read your comments “religiously” for a year and a half (?) now. You are definitely not a knee-jerk skeptic; there has been an evolutionary process going on in your writings that highlights your deep thinking. Keep thinking out loud, please.
There is much meat in the article—the reviewer actually read it! This is already a sign that he isn’t an edubully or an edufraud — for typically the less they know about a subject, the more confident and knowledgeable they seem to be.
Everyone will have their favorite section[s]. Mine: “…Ravitch is a conscience that can’t be purchased.”
IMHO, everything else flows from that. Consider the type of person that inspired Mark Twain’s observation:
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
And where in the ed debates can you find the “moral courage” he references? Come to “Diane Ravitch’s Blog A site to discuss better education for all.”
You won’t be disappointed.
😎
As one of the “politically orphaned,” I’m proud to consider you my political mother. Indeed, you are the new Mother Jones! Long live Mother Ravitch!
Diane, How do we know that privatization and “reform” are not successful? What is the evidence upon which this assertion is based? I plan to read “Reign” over the Christmas break, but was hoping you could address this in the meantime.
Thanks.
Hi Diane,
This is the first time I visited your blog. I did so as a result of the article about the review at TruthDig. I admire your efforts on behalf of education. i need to comment on the blog itself though, It is quite lovely in it’s design but the small orange print although pretty I find hard to read.
I wonder if I am alone in this problem.