Thanks to all those who read the blog on a daily basis!
The number of page views on the blog passed 8 million just a few hours ago. The blog started in late April 2012, so this is an amazing response, which demonstrates that there was a need for the discussion that happens here.
My goal for the blog was that it would provide the information that supporters of public education need so they see that the attacks on public education, on teachers, and on the right of children to a balanced education are national in scope. I hoped also to provide a forum where people who care about “a better education for all” could exchange views and ideas, where there could be civil discussions and disagreements and where we could learn together about the unprecedented policy churn that has upended education in our nation.
I want the blog to help parents, teachers, students, and other concerned citizens learn from one another, organize, and feel encouraged to speak up and make our democracy work for all of us.
I value freedom of speech, so I welcome those who don’t agree with me or with others. It is not necessary to agree. It is only necessary to think.
Let it be noted that I try to make room for humor, for poetry, even for occasional posts about my dog, my cat, my health. I have made so many new friends through the blog that I like to share what I enjoy with you.
I do have limitations. Certain curse words are forever banned, especially when they start with the sixth letter of the alphabet. I block readers who are persistently and unnecessarily abusive towards other readers. And I have limited tolerance for commenters who use my space to insult me. I do not block all such remarks, but I will not allow rude and abusive people to use my “living room” to insult me or my readers. These limitations have not been a burden for the overwhelming majority of readers–the 99.9%.
What makes this blog work, I think, is that so many readers are actively engaged in the conversation. I try to read every comment and respond when I think it necessary and when I can.
I thank all of you for joining the discussion and for allowing me from time to time to turn your eloquent words into a post. Thank you also for sending the links to what is happening in your district and state.
I remind you that I manage the blog without any helpers. I post what I want. I post things I like, and I post things that I don’t necessarily agree with.
So, welcome to the conversation. Let’s keep it going.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Congratulations!
8M of almost anything is worth paying attention to.
8M Page Views is Outstanding.
Thanks for keeping the flame fluttering in the Eye of the Storm.
My highest admiration.
Danke schön!
LikeLike
Thank you Diane for your wealth of knowledge, your persistence, and for sharing all of that with the rest of us. I learn from you every day!
LikeLike
Yes, keep posting! Your daily entries are eye-openers, even for even old vets like me. For nearly twenty years, I’ve been saying that NCLB, with it’s 100% proficiency requirement, is a blatant takeover strategy for private money interests. At first I was labeled a conspiracy theorist but now, even my mildest colleagues agree.
Fan the fire, Diane! Keep us engaged and fighting for our children, our communities and our country.
LikeLike
Congratulations, this is a fantastic achievement!
LikeLike
You are appreciated! I keep up with your blog daily. Many are listening.
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike
Thank you for for showing by word and deed that even in this Most Cagebusting Achievement Gap Crushing Twenty First Century of $tudent $ucce$$ that
“To be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.” [Sophocles]
Keep on keepin’ on…
😎
LikeLike
Thank YOU, Diane!
LikeLike
Thank you.
LikeLike
They’re downgrading Michigan’s public school bonds because Michigan is funneling public dollars to for-profit charter schools:
http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/11/corporatist-mission-accomplished-charter-schools-strangling-public-schools.html?utm_content=buffera4dea&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer
Eli Broad is from Michigan, and he writes editorials in that state insisting he is NOT destroying public education. Would someone in media ask him to defend what’s happening in Michigan? 80% of the charters are for-profit and they are destroying the public school system. The governor and the state legislature are captured by for-profit education lobbyists.
Michigan could LOSE their public school system. Will Broad have to answer for what he’s done here? How far does this have to go before someone in state or federal government intervenes? Will Michigan be the first state to go to a fully privatized system?
Thanks, ed reformers. Good job! Every public school kid in Michigan will now suffer as a result of your cavalier, reckless, “cage busting” approach. Every single kid in a public school will pay.
LikeLike
“In a separate report last month, Moody’s said charter schools were hurting public school finances in urban districts nationwide — and singled out Michigan as home to a large number facing that pressure. The report said Detroit, Clintondale, Mount Clemens and Ypsilanti schools “all have experienced significant fiscal strain related to charter enrollment growth.”
Marlowe said school districts across the country have been hit by credit downgrades.
“These reports haven’t been unique to Michigan,” he said. “This is definitely a national trend and Michigan is maybe a little more pronounced and have been hit a little bit harder.”
For districts that have to borrow money, a credit downgrade increases their costs to borrow, which can leave them with less money for teacher salaries, utility bills and other operating costs.”
90% of US schools are PUBLIC schools. Who speaks for those 90% of kids? No one in Michigan or the federal government, apparently. They’ve been completely abandoned.
LikeLike
What’s really amazing is that there have been nearly 17,000 page views just since your blog recorded 8M hits earlier today. That’s one heck of a lot of interest!
LikeLike
I spoke too soon, Diane. You’ve now had more than twice that many, since reaching 8M, and are at over 35,000 hits in one day alone! Congratulations on being so relevant and important in people’s lives!!!
Am I the only one who has been experiencing a very noticeable drag on the system today as well?
LikeLike
Diane…you have created a fulcrum where educators can speak freely and learn from you and from each other. This blog site has become the meeting place for the world of education. Thank you..and I am so glad to hear that you are once again on the move.
Ellen Lubic
LikeLike
Ellen,
You’re Woof Thomsen? Ay, Ay, Ay and an extra one Ay!!! (never said I was the quickest at these things)
LikeLike
Congrats, Dr. Ravitch!
LikeLike
As the wife of a public high school science teacher and mom of 2 public school kids, I will be eternally grateful to you for your book and this blog, which have not only provided me with a wonderful education on the many backstories, but a place where I can go where my gut instincts are confirmed daily – and I don’t feel like a conspiracy theorist anymore.
LikeLike
As Diane accurately describes, it’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s a business plan. Hence, Arne Duncan et al. regularly seek council and support from the Chamber of Commerce and various billionaires who are steering the ship, in order to fulfill their neo-liberal agenda –and children are just collateral damage for the oligarchy.
LikeLike
Your comment is so wise and so true…
LikeLike
It’s like going to Cheers at the end of a long day. Thanks for the support and sanity.
LikeLike
8 million and counting. I hope politicians are paying attention!
Thank you Diane for allowing us all to gather in your living room, to learn and share. Your wisdom is my daily inspiration. To 8 million more!
LikeLike
Congrats on the many views, Diane. We know that even those who disagree are paying attention. We’re so glad you made this “place” for us to get information and to engage in discussion.
Now on to a very important question…you have a cat? 😛
LikeLike
I can’t even begin to tell you how thankful I am for this amazing blog. On a practical level, as a public school parent, it’s an ever-helpful reality check to a system in which all intentions are good but the end result is enormously damaging for the children and the adults who try so hard to teach them. On a more philosophical level, well, it’s just appalling to see how much damage is done by educational reformers (or: “reformers”) to the children least able to take it. I mean, we’re lucky; I know that. My child is one of those hardworking, middle-class high achievers who has benefitted at every level of his education from really, really good schools. But since his first day in a general ed public school that was, at the time, quite mixed in terms of both race and class, it was quite apparent how some kids started out ahead–and stayed that way. And….it’s the kids who started with the least who have fallen badly behind, and there is nothing in Bloomberg’s policies–or Arne Duncan’s–that has changed this. For all that I am proud of my own child and very satisfied with his school, I just hate seeing what is happening to so many children in this system. And your blog points this out every day. Thank you and please keep speaking up and showing us ways in which we can help. And stay healthy!
LikeLike
Very well characterized. But do you really think that those who start ahead aren’t going to stay ahead? It can be fixed, but not in Diane’s way. It can only be fixed the way you fixed it, by getting your kid ahead yourself. Are you going to give up doing that? Are you going to squash down your kid so she’s “equal” to those who get to the starting line 4 years behind your kid? You aren’t going to nail your kid’s feet to the track, and you aren’t going to stop striving to get ahead. You aren’t going to wait for the stragglers, are you. The devil take the hindermost, we used to say. NOR on the other hand will you vote to tax yourself enough to implement Diane’s solutions. It won’t be done, and, in fact, it can’t be done that way. It can’t be helped. All you can do is save your own kid.
LikeLike
District 13 Parent: Thank you for caring about other people’s children! You are truly a gem!!
And just ignore Harlan, one of our visiting Tea Partiers. He enjoys spreading his party line here and likes to trash talk the notions of equity and the public good, because he thinks they are anti-constitution and communist concepts –that also cost money which capitalists should never have to spend, especially those hard working billionaires.
LikeLike
It’s amazing, Diane. The evolution is unfolding; the revolution will follow.
LikeLike
“Comes the Revolution . . . ” we secret communists in the cell used to say to each other. Did it ever come? Maybe ObamaCare will work too.
LikeLike
Sincerely, Diane, I do appreciate this blog because it give me information which I use to try to understand what’s happening not just in education but culturally and generally. Thank you for your energy and application. I do not agree with your fundamental orientation, of course, but I have begun to understand just a little bit why I do not. Your patience is saintly, but then again, at this time in the nation’s history nothing less is required, and so frequently absent.
LikeLike
Does that 8 million include those of us who read all your posts from our email every day?
LikeLike
What’s interesting is even at 8 million how many people we still have to “enlighten” to this blog. Very few teachers with whom I work know about this blog. I shout out far and wide to any that will listen that they need to read not only what Diane has to say but what the posters have to say (yes, especially including HU and TE.) It’s too easy to stay in our own little focused world so it’s good to have those whose thoughts and ideas may not necessarily jibe with the majority of those who respond here.
LikeLike
And remember the 8 million is the number of visits, not the number of different folks who have visited the site. We got a ways to go yet in the fight against the edudeformers.
LikeLike
What wonderful news that readership continues to grow exponentially! It goes to show how much these issues need to be addressed! The blog should be a syndicated column in a well read on line newspaper that is still free.. are there still any on line newspapers that could capture a large audience and are still free? It sure would increase a newspaper’s on line readership to have Ravitch at the helm with her top notch blog and might expose a widespread community (that might not normally read about education issues) to these all-important issues! Just thinking… on how to reach an audience that needs to start thinking about public education and how it is actually very revealing of what is happening to democracy on a much larger scale. For now, each one of us who follow the blog daily are doing our part by passing on the word to everyone we know!
LikeLike
Thank you from me, also. This blog helps keep me sane, grounded, and renews my energy. In my state, we are still holding off some of these “reforms,” thanks in part to our supportive state Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau and to our union. Montana is NOT a “right-to-work” state.
—-from a teacher in Helena, Montana
LikeLike
Diane, Thank you for your book, your support, your courage and your commitment to education, teachers and children – you have given us hope, a voice and and the truth…we’ll forever be grateful! Continued success!!
LikeLike
I hope that like Jack Benny you get younger very year…just in case my great grandchildren still need you!
Thank for all you do , the speeches, traveling, books, articles..
Take care and stay well.
Gratefully,
Peg 🙂
LikeLike
“Certain curse words are forever banned, especially when they start with the sixth letter of the alphabet.”
I guess this explains why Rahm Emanuel doesn’t post messages on your blog. 🙂
Thanks for being such a wonderful advocate for children, teachers, and their communities!
LikeLike
Before the night is over, you may have a million congrats on your blog. I add my hooray to you.
LikeLike
Congratulations, Diane! You deserve it. Be well.
K. Keevins
LikeLike
It’s good to know that so many people are reading and learning form what is posted on this blog. Congratulations thank you for your contribution to enhance education in our nation & stay well!
LikeLike
Thank you for inviting us into your “living room.” I appreciate all that I have learned. I hope you are feeling well!
LikeLike
Your blog is so very Healthy for the many teachers and former teachers who must release their frustration about this Testing Mania and Corporate takeover of our schools.
What teachers have discovered is that they are not alone in this Fight against this Deform in our public schools…
LikeLike
Diane
Google helped me find your blog.
I do not want to print what I put in the search as it may be flagged….but it worked..
I was so frustrated at the chaos of the implementation of the standards and the thousands of tests given in my state….that…… I could not see straight…
Your blog is a Stress Reliever as so many thousands of caring educators have realized they are not in this sinking ship…alone…
LikeLike
Diane, I appreciate the personal posts. I am a really regular reader who prepares teachers, especially teachers of young adolescents. Today i am meeting with a few other deans of schools of Ed. to discuss Reign of Error. I wanted to point you to some longitudinal research conducted by Jerry Valentine through the Middle Level Leadership Center at the U of Missouri that was shared with me. I have only skimmed this myself but you might be able to read and verify. Dr. Valentine has tracked the percentage of young adolescents’ who are able to use higher order/deep thinking skills and these percentages made a steady decline over the NCLB years. I know Dr. Valentine supports Common Core because he believes it to better foster HODT. But I do think he has data to support that narrowing the curriculum results in fewer students being able to (let alone wanting to) think. Perhaps you can take a look. Thanks again for your work. I truly appreciate your efforts.
LikeLike
” I know Dr. Valentine supports Common Core because he believes it to better foster HODT.”
Many things support higher order/deep thinking skills, but standards need to be developmentally appropriate. For instance, I want my Kindergarten students to develop these skills but I’m not going to have them read Tolstoy.
I think the biggest issue with the standards is in the sheer scope of their conceptual presentation. They are overwhelming to student and teacher alike, and their implementation ought to allow a great deal of flexibility for the education professional. Unfortunately, they are being crammed down the throats of teachers with little to no insight on how to synthesize them into meaningful lessons–there has been very little study on their efficacy and any real research on productive implementation is spotty. For many educators, they have become a surreal set of almighty tenets instead of a practical guide toward curricular development. I can envision explorers in our world’s future uncovering them carved into the pillars of a stone temple of a civilization lost.
We need flexible, professionally-driven goals that can be tailored to the needs of populations. Some children enter school with very little in the way of developed skills. These standards tie the hands of the educators who are trying to reach them and instead seek to punish the students with impossible benchmarks. Instead of curing the “disease,” those who developed these standards are trying to eradicate the human in a “sink or swim” environment. This is morally and pedagogically wrong.
LikeLike
Had J. Valentine for one of my first ever education classes at Mizzou in 1974-5 or so.
LikeLike
Thank you so much for all your hard work on behalf of all of us – children, teachers and families – the citizenry that makes up our communities, states and nation.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater and commented:
Congratulations and thank you for your tireless work! I hope you are resting up and feeling better. I don’t worry that you’re posting too much, because I think you love what you do. Onward!
LikeLike