G.T. (Guy) Brandenburg is a retired teacher who taught for many years in the D.C. Public Schools. He has a sharp eye and digs deep before he writes. He achieved a measure of fame when Michelle Rhee was chancellor. She boasted that as a young TFA teacher she had brought her students’ scores from the 13th percentile to the 90th percentile. A number of national publications quoted this remarkable feat, but Brandenburg did the research. The records for the classroom where she taught could not be found but he was able to find test scores for the school and the cohort and declared that her claim was implausible. Eventually, the mainstream media stopped repeating the claim and understood it as an urban legend.
I knew when I sent SLAYING GOLIATH to Brandenburg that it would be rigorously fact-checked. That’s the kind of reader he is.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Nice writing from you, too, Mr. Brandenburg, “retired math teacher”.
Yup, there’s certainly been a lot of “pretending” as he puts it about the alleged good ‘ole days when American students aced every standardized test on the planet. (Not)
But then again there appears to be an epidemic of pretending among much of the MAGA crowd who seem to have a deluded sense of just how rosy life was 50+ years ago… (Of course, it sure wasn’t rosy for lots of people back then….)
The efforts of conservatives to turn back the 1960s including re-writing history continue full on.
Hence the invaluable contribution of historians like Diane.
The good ole days”
The good ol’ days
Were really Great
With beating gays
And other hate
The good ol’ days
Of yesteryear
When blacks and grays
Had much to fear
The good ol’ days
Were never gone
The good ol’ phase
Lives on and on
Your verse reminds me of the opening song to the TV show “All in the Family”.
Which, by the way, is a sitcom that has aged remarkably well. A few years ago I was pulling it in off a station in Scranton.
See Salon article, “Why All in the Family Still Matters” for example. https://www.salon.com/2011/01/12/all_in_the_family/
It is sad to watch Archie Bunker now, though, and know that once upon a time back in the seventies our nation could find humor in such a character. And, that the show could actually bring people together to maybe move a little bit more beyond bigotry.
Now our “Archie Bunker” is sitting in the Oval Office with the bulk of an entire political party along with millions of our fellow citizens kowtowing before him, as if he is some serious prophet. Meanwhile, many millions of other Americans live in fear and disgust.
If I remember right, Archie Bunker came to be a more sympathetic character as the series went on during the 1970s. No such maturation for Trump.
YES: re-writing history. This is exactly how the reformer game is played. So much hype about what must be created out of thin air based upon a terrible “status quo” which never was.
Brandenburg’s final quote from Slaying Goliath about denial of the public’s voice for 20 years- the scheme of disruptors, is one of my favorite quotes from Diane’s book.
The American public has been denied it’s voice for a lot longer than 20 years (by both Republicans and Democrats)
Looking back at Michelle Rhee’s class in Baltimore, I think that the reason that there was a little bit of a ‘bump’ in the scores of the grade level she taught there during her last year there was that there was a very large increase in the number of students who scored so low that their scores weren’t counted. If this hypothesis is correct, that would indicate that her methodology of cheating was one that she found to be a winner.
I thought her classroom scores went up because she ate a bee.
In a logical world, that would have been the lesson — and the districtwide policy thereafter.
I thought that the fact that Rhee would have been fired by her own metric in her first year is very telling. The formula is keep raising the bar until you fire the right people.
I read the comments by the teachers that lived through this reign of terror. How many young people were turned away from what could have been a meaningful career? I also read that nursing school applications are at an all time high. Could it be women are turning to nursing over teaching which has become an intolerable career for many women?
Dearest Dr. Ravitch:
My intermittent brain cannot produces whatever in my brain that I love to read and write.
I am glad that I pick the article from my admirable Guru Loyd Lofthouse to read on The retired math Teacher’s review of your new book.
Yes, I have cried a lot due to my uncontrollable emotion from a damage nerve system due to the second stroke. My life seems really wasted from eating and sleeping but not reading and writing as much as I love to do.
My own background in all of my learning has been influenced by my Mom’s teaching and my Dad’s daily activities as setting an example for all of his children. I fully trust and believe in their teaching absolutely.
For the past 40+ years or working and learning in Canada, my life has been through all good and bad times in order to confirm the truth in kindness and compassion will prevail in all humans lives on Earth = peaceful soul or chaos soul as per people’s preference through their intentional good deeds or bad deeds.
Love and admire you forever,
Respectfully yours,
May King