Eleanor Chute, who covers education in Pittsburgh, wrote an excellent review of “Reign of Error” in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
With the rise and dominance of the Internet, there are ever fewer cities and towns with newspapers, and book review sections have almost died out. Even the New York Times book review seems to have half as many pages as it did a decade ago. So given the limited amount of space for books to be reviewed, it is especially good news to see a review by an experienced education writer in a newspaper.
She–or the headline writer–called the book “in-you-face.” If that means honest, candid, no holds barred, that’s right.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
More newspapers should follow suit and give “Reign of Error” great reviews.
LikeLike
“She compares setting a goal of 100 percent proficiency and punishing schools which don’t make it with setting a goal of crime-free communities and taking away police and resources from those that still have crime.”
Terrific analogy, Diane!
LikeLike
“. . . called the book ‘in-you-face.'”
I’m sure we could come up with a few of us who would be more than happy to “get in the faces” quite literally, in an intellectual takedown. Name a couple of cities, especially one here in the midwest, west of the Mississippi River where we’ll gladly have a “true” discussion and not a choreographed kabuki theatre “professional” wrestling match.
LikeLike
A wonderful review! Superb!
LikeLike
Almost superb.
We still need to discuss some notions out there.
While I agree that the Pittsburgh review is very good, there is still a place where we can talk more with people who write such reviews. The reviewer writes: “Ms. Ravitch believes schools were showing more improvement before No Child Left Behind when more effort was made to address poverty and racial segregation.”
As we all agree here (I suspect), this is not a question of “belief.”
The history shows it, and many of us were proudly a part of it. During those years when the struggle for equity, desegregation and social justice were a national priority (and that was never a lengthy time in U.S. history, as we also know), the overall results were nothing short of amazing. This was as true during the years immediately following the Civil War and the (partial) implementation of the 13th, 14th and 15h Amendments and became true against after World War II. At that time, for what we now know was a brief period in U.S. history, the reign of error of the plutocrats and the eugenicists was pushed back. The horrors that many of our fathers saw as they liberated Europe showed just what happens when those with power can institute a “Race To The Top” that then legalizes the elimination of the “bottom.”
(My own father’s unit, the 44th Infantry Division, was part of the liberation of one of the “lesser” camps — Natzweiler. When he finally talked about it as he passed into his eight decade, I asked him why he had never told his children about it and what he remembered: “There is some evil for which there are no words…” was a version of his answer).
Before the U.S. Civil War, there was a very strong Reign of Error. It was led by the majority of preachers and professors and pundits, that proved that black people were either a separate species or “naturally” inferior. Hollywood is just getting around to demonstrating some of that more clearly (my favorite current iteration is “Django Unchained,” which I saw with my two elementary school age sons).
Once Reconstruction had been overturned and a Reign of Terror unleashed against black Americans (and any of us who supported equity and equality), the smart money was on the eugenicists. It was only after Adolph Hitler took the logics of American professors and pundits to their logical conclusions that these earlier iterations of Race To The Top were stopped — briefly.
And at each point there was a flourishing of human creativity, a broadening of democracy, and a measurable “increase” in all those measurable things. The liberation of working class men and women (by 1946, when I was born, we also had finally legislated the franchise for the majority of Americans; the Voting Rights Act of 1964 just finished that long long work) showed what democracy can be.
Every plutocracy hates such. Not only will they pay their pundits to preach the opposite of reality, but they will do lots more to return to the good old days of races to the top, eugenics, and all that nasty stuff.
We are not talking about Diane Ravitch’s “beliefs” here. These are historical facts. But then, if the Common Core crowd and the privatizers have their way, history will be filtered through the same censors that gave us the reign of propaganda from Dred Scott to Gone With The Wind and beyond… And our children will be hard pressed to learn the facts of history because so many lies will be dating reality from times like the publication date of “A Nation At Risk.”
LikeLike
Well said George, well said!
LikeLike
Great post!
George and Diane: Can you add info on this related topic on John Merrow’s page? After Education Nation published facts about progress in American education that, he said, seemed to come from Diane’s book, he mentioned something about the possibility of that being a result of education “reform.” It’s NOT and more people need to say it: http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6575.
LikeLike
I do miss the old fashion newspaper that actually reported some news and engaged in critical analysis. I’m glad they still exist.
LikeLike
Congrats on another great, well-deserved review.
As a Pittsburgh public school teacher, I’m actually amazed by the review. I’m used to this particular journalist providing a rather bland, color-by-numbers approach to reporting on education, never questioning the school board or central administration’s practices. There is a serious dearth of investigative journalism around here, specifically when it comes to our public schools (Gates blood money, CCSS, VAM, etc.). It would be nice if the P-G and their writers took Diane’s words to heart, and worked on exposing some of the lies that now drive our curriculum, force high-stakes testing on our children, and tie teacher assessment to those very high-stakes tests. I can only hope our district leaders have taken the time to read (and understand) your work.
LikeLike
Josh, it would help if you could start a book study group and invite some board members to join you. Parents too.
LikeLike
This is an exceptionally great review from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Congratulations! Diane’s visit to Pittsburgh at the beginning of her book tour really helped here — local journalists like Eleanor Chute had the opportunity to meet with Diane in person and have now read the book. This is really important.
LikeLike