The blog of The Assailed Teacher offers one of the best,
most
thoughtful reviews of the book I have read. The
writer is a history teacher and demonstrates the care and concern for context
that typifies the best historical thinking. First, he describes the books I wrote previous to “Reign of Error” and previous to my abandonment of the nostrums of the right.

Thankfully, he recognizes that my historical works prior to 2010 were not political tracts. “The
Great School Wars” (1974) was a history of the great controversies
that shaped the New York City public schools. “Left Back” ((2000)
was a history of battles over the curriculum. He doesn’t mention
it, but my 2003 book, “The Language Police” was an analysis of the
way that pressure groups of the left and the right were censoring
tests and textbooks. Although I was part of rightwing think tanks
at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in D.C. and the Hoover
Institution in California, my books were nonpartisan.

The Assailed Teacher then analyzes some of the unfriendly reviews of the book
and shows how they distort my plain language in “Reign of Error.”

He concludes:

“What Diane Ravitch has accomplished in Reign of
Error is a distillation of everything that is wrong with what has
been dubbed education reform. All of the facts and arguments are
laid out in plain language backed up with compelling evidence, or
“data”, as the reformers love to say. She has hoist the reformers
with their own petard by measuring their failures with the same
yardstick with which they have been measuring public schools: test
scores. In 100 or 200 years, Reign of Error will be an invaluable
primary source about this episode in America’s educational history.
She has rolled up into one convenient book the spirit of our
educational times. This is why the criticisms of Reign of Error
that have been proffered impotently melt away when one starts
analyzing them. Their view is to push a narrow agenda now. Ravitch
obviously wrote this book with one eye on the long view of things,
both the history of the past and the history of now that has yet to
be written.

“Just like Diane Ravitch helped me construct my view of
American schooling almost 10 years ago, she has helped deconstruct
what education reform is about. Moreover, she has pointed the way
towards how to reconstruct our public schools.”

If any self-dubbed reformer tries to get under my skin with barbed words, I will
reread the Assailed Teacher and remind myself that historians write
for the long term, not the moment. They deconstruct the issues of
the day and try to put them into context. If they succeed, their
words survive. If they don’t, they are soon forgotten. The virtue
of studying history is that we are constantly reminded that history
does not move in a straight line. Bad ideas are found out and fall
away. Good ideas don’t always triumph, but we must never abandon
our quest to figure out how to improve our society. We must believe
that expanding our democracy is a goal worth pursuing. And in
believing it, we can make it happen. Thanks, Assailed Teacher.

Please feel appreciated, not assailed, today.

A NYC teacher who calls his or her blog NYCDOENUTS has written a wonderful review of “Reign of Error.”

Teachers understand that this book may be (to use Arne Duncan’s favorite phrase) a “game changer.”

You see, big money can buy legislators, it can buy ads, it can buy media.

But words and ideas can beat big money in a democracy, if we organize.

NYCDOENUTS concludes:

“In the final chapters of the book Ravitch takes the next step by offering many solutions to our current problems in education. It is in this final third of the book where I believe she exceeds her previous book The Death and Life of the Great American School System. The solutions she offers are nothing radical or earth shattering, and none of them would change the system overnight. However they are real solutions (not the next big thing that will be thrown out in 3 years, after several billion dollars are wasted and millions more have dropped out) that would bring real positive results over time. Things like reduced class size, wraparound services, and strengthening the teaching profession. These are real solutions that any teacher who has spent more than two years in a classroom knows are necessary for progress.

“Ravitch has done all of the hard work for us activists. She has made many clear and well researched arguments, and advocated for the real reforms that real educators want. Reign of Error may just be the catalyst that finally pushes back the tide of education reform. Once the public is truly informed and sees through the lies, double talk, and half truths, of the reformers it will be impossible to stop the push back.”

Wendy Lecker is senior attorney for the Campaign for Fiscal
Equity at the Education Law Center. She writes frequently in
Connecticut newspapers about education issues and advocates on
behalf of students. Here
she reviews Reign of Error. She
notes, quoting the Nobelist Niels Bohr, that true experts are
willing to acknowledge their mistakes and learn from them. She then
goes on to write: Another Nobel Prize winner, Albert
Einstein, defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results. This definition
characterizes the past decade or more of educational “reform”
efforts. Despite the failure of test-based accountability,
charter schools, Teach for America, school closures and other
schemes, policy-makers keep expanding these reforms, to the
detriment of public schools and America’s neediest
children. Dr. Ravitch has just published,
“Reign of Error,” a readable and well-researched book that examines
this (my term) insanity. The strengths of this book are its
simultaneous breadth and accessibility. Ravitch covers quite a bit
of terrain: the recent history of school reform, the major players
in the reform movement, the claims used to criticize American
public education, the “fixes” championed by reformers and Ravitch’s
suggestions for a more sane and productive education policy. The
book is meticulously researched. Yet, it is also easy-to-read and
engaging. For those who are unfamiliar with the current
landscape of education policy and its historical context, this
volume is a useful primer. For those steeped in all things
education, the book brings new insights. Her overarching
message, that American public education is the bedrock of a healthy
society and democracy, is a theme that cannot be repeated
enough.

Jonathan Lovell noticed that several critics of “Reign of Error” have attacked me, instead of engaging the issues I raise in the book. Jonathan teaches writing at San Jose State. He sent me this couplet, written by Alexander Pope:

“Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see
Men, not afraid of God, afraid of me.”

After I met him in Berkeley on Saturday night, he wrote as follows:

“The Alexander Pope couplet is from the verse epistles he wrote in 1738 towards the end of his life, in imitation of Horace, and in which he positions himself as a voice of public consciousness–a voice that he felt was utterly lacking in the political figures of his day. His voice and stance reminded me so much of you! Here’s a sample of the lines leading up to that couplet:

Ask you what provocation I have had?
The strong antipathy of good to bad. 370
When Truth or Virtue an affront endures,
Th’ affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours.
Mine, as a foe profess’d to false pretense,
Who think a coxcomb’s honour like his sense;
Mine, as a friend to ev’ry worthy mind; 375
And mine as man, who feel for all mankind.
F. You ’re strangely proud.
P. So proud, I am no slave;
So impudent, I own myself no knave;
So odd, my country’s ruin makes me grave.
Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see 380
Men, not afraid of God, afraid of me.

“I especially like the lines “When Truth or Virtue an affront endures,/Th’ affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours.” Those lines, as they say, have your name written all over them.”

Jonathan Lovell has his own blog.

This is an excerpt from one of his most popular posts:

“My point is to demonstrate that we can all deliberately and systematically draw on the various ways we know our kids are smart. That is, we can draw on their various talents as readers, listeners, responders to and shapers of their world. In doing so, we can not only speak out but “teach out” against practices and policies that we know are damaging our students, preventing them from experiencing themselves as the diversely talented group of individuals that, in our heart of hearts, we know them to be.

And in light of what is sure to be a tidal wave of curriculum materials purporting to “raise students’ scores” on the 2015 CCS assessments, I propose the adoption of the following resolution:

WHEREAS every large scale study over the past 30 years of income level in relation to student achievement has shown a compelling correlation between the two, and

WHEREAS the percentage of students in poverty in our nation’s schools has grown steadily and persistently over the past 39 years, and

WHEREAS the present levels of income inequality in our nation can be related directly to conscious public policy,

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED

That the Common Core Standards; individual schools that “beat the odds”; Teach for America Interns whose students “outperform” those of traditionally credentialed teachers; and all such apparent instances of an anticipated “Revolution in American Education”

Be understood for what they are: seductive distractions from the ONE ISSUE we must face as a nation if “school improvement” is to be anything more than an instance of sentimental romanticism–the shameful growth in income disparity between our poorest and wealthiest citizens.”

Jeff Bryant locates
Reign of Error within the context of a coming “education
spring,” a growing grassroots rebellion against a failing corporate
reform movement. Parents, students, educators, and citizens are
fighting back and winning, often in unexpected places, like Texas.
The mask is falling away from the faux “reform” movement, whose
main effect has been to demoralize teachers and impose a regime of
oppressive testing on children that has no purpose other than to
grade their teachers. The public is beginning to see the light. The
reformers’ house of cards is looking shaky. Yes, spring is coming,
and not a moment to soon. Bryant writes: Ravitch dispels
bromides of the reform movement – that public education is a
systemic failure, that American schools have made little progress
over the years, and that market-based approaches relying on test
scores will save the day – with fact-based
arguments. But it would be a mistake to
discount Ravitch as a purveyor of negativism. Like the voices from
the masses behind the Education Spring, Ravitch makes a clear call
for expanding opportunities in areas that really matter for schools
and students. Her eleven “solutions” for real
school improvement derive from what we already know works: better
care and education in the early years, essentials such as a
well-rounded curriculum and small class sizes, attention to
non-academic needs of students, and policies that support teachers
and schools and unite communities, students, and parents behind
education as a common good. No doubt Ravitch’s
words will become part of the rallying cries of people everywhere
who continue to call for the schools our students deserve. And the
Education Spring – a movement that truly is for all seasons – will
not stop.

I thought you might find these back-to-back interviews interesting. I am wearing the same clothes because the tapings occurred only minutes apart. The other thing you might notice if you see my lectures or appearances on YouTube is that I am almost always wearing the same jacket but usually in different colors. When I find something I like, I stick with it. I will never make the list of America’s Best Dressed Women. You may notice that this is a title I do not covet. I want to be comfortable. My favorite outfit consists of jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers, but that is not appropriate for television or lectures. So ignore the outfit and listen to the conversation.

A very wise scholar of American media and politics, Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, once told me an axiom that I have cherished for 25 years: “On radio, no one knows what you wore, on television no one knows what you said.” I don’t know if that is true but I admit that it is irksome when someone says after a TV appearance: “I can’t believe you wore those shoes” or “your lipstick was not the right color” or “not that jacket again!”

Proving Steve Hess was right.

So here is my interview with the great Errol Louis. We talked about the book and also the implications of the recent mayoral election for education in New York City.

And this interview with veteran New York Times writer Sam Roberts was interesting for a different reason, having nothing to do with my green jacket. Sam, whom I respect for his wisdom and experience, had in his hand a not-yet-available copy of New York Times Book Review containing the review of my book. Not even my editor had seen it. I had no idea who would be assigned to review the book. I hoped for the best and expected the worst. When Sam told me on air that the book was reviewed by Jonathan Kozol. I almost fell off my chair. I haven’t watched the interview yet, I hardly ever do (I don’t want to start critiquing my hair, my posture, my lipstick, etc.), but I want to see this one to see the look on my face. I know how I was feeling.(Wow! Wow! Just wow!)

Yesterday, I received a notice from a group in Indianapolis called “The Mind Trust” about their bringing Condaleeza Rice to Indianapolis to talk about education.

Echoing a lame report issued by a task force for the Council on Foreign Relations, which she co-chaired with Joel Klein, Rice warned that America’s public schools were so terrible that they had become “our greatest national security crisis today.”

The task force solutions: charters, vouchers, Common Core, and new technology. The problem, as the task force saw it, was the fact of having public schools.

This fits the corporate agenda of the Mind Trust, which has a plan to dissolve public education in Indianapolis.

This is sheer humbug and poppycock. Others might say that Al Queda or the threat of domestic terrorism or our huge income inequality threatens our national security, not our public schools. But she has her talking points, and she is sticking to them.

I reviewed the report of the task force, which I found to be wildly exaggerated. The best part about the report was its dissents, which made hash of the report.

Actually, as I look back, I should thank Rice and her co-chair Joel Klein because their unfounded alarmism set me on a mission to pursue the facts about test scores, graduation rates, and international scores. And what I learned made me decide to tell the true facts in a new book.

Sadly, Rice has learned nothing new in the past year. Please give the lady a copy of my book if you see her.

Paul Horton is a history teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School and a passionate supporter of public education. Here he reviews Reign of Error.

He calls his review “The One Percent’s Solution and the Betrayal of Public Education.”

That is a good summary of the book right there.

Horton traces the nation’s commitment to public education to its earliest days:

After the Revolution, but before the ratification of the Constitution, the Northwest Ordinance set aside a portion of land sales in the Northwest territories, now the Midwest, to build and fund public schools, beginning a 325 year commitment to public education from the national government.

After briefly outlining the federal role in education, Horton writes:

This historic commitment to public Education has been now been abandoned by the George W. Bush and the Obama Administrations. Moreover this abandonment represents a tectonic shift that most of the public does not understand.

The earthquakes and trimmers occur in public opinion only when parents begin to understand the devastating effects of standardized testing that is being used as a political bludgeon on the children of America to justify the destruction of public education in the United States.

This abandonment of public education is the subject of Diane Ravitch’s brilliant new book: Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.

Ms. Ravitch’s book should be read by every American parent, teacher, and school administrator because together these groups must join together to form a movement to resist the anti-democratic “reforms” that have been imposed on the American public education system with virtually no public hearings or due process.

A combination of private foundations, liberal and conservative think tanks, consultants from McKinsey, and Federal officials, according to Ravitch, have supported the private takeover of the public schools. If left unchallenged, says Ravitch, the public school system will soon reach a tipping point where quality public schools will no longer be able to compete with private schools. Public school funding is being gutted by privatization schemes.

He notes that the Obama administration doubled down on the George W. Bush administration’s failed policies of testing, accountability, and choice. Decisions were made by consulting officials on loan from the Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, and others who had little experience in the trenches of public education. It is a sad and sorry tale.

He concludes:

Ms. Ravitch’s new book, Reign of Error is the best way to educate yourself about the takeover of our educational system by billionaires who, even if they are well-intentioned, do not understand what they are doing. She encourages us not to wait until our children’s scores fall thirty to forty percent on standardized tests to read this book. Rather, we must educate ourselves and others so that we can understand why a test company that produces shoddy products is going to destroy the confidence of our children to advance the misguided policies of the Obama administration that have already failed. Ms. Ravitch’s book is a moral laser beam aimed at the conscience of the American public: there is nothing as morally perverse as educational leaders who applaud that fact that seventy present of the students in one state can fail a test so that they can call for the “death penalty” for more public schools so that Wall Street bundlers and other billionaires can make more money and pay fewer taxes.

I was interviewed by Steve Inskeep of NPR Morning Edition. It airs today. It may be the best 5-minute summary of “Reign of Error.”

A note to my friends who teach and use educational technology. Contrary to the introduction, I do not oppose technology. I support technology as a tool for teachers, not a replacement for teachers. I know, from direct personal experience, that there are people in board rooms and think tanks who yearn for the day when technology will make it possible to cut costs by having children “taught ” by someone who is in a distant locale, with the added bonus of eliminating teachers’ unions.