Diane Ravitch explores the corporate side of American public education and the reformists’ misled beliefs that the school system is in crisis. The school reforms in place are disguised as a means of improving public education, when in reality it has become an objective to “replace public education with a privately managed, free-market system of schooling” (Ravitch, p.4). Diane Ravitch supports her claim that the reformation movement has poor intentions with multiple sources of evidence. Among these facts she uncovers the truth behind test scores and the achievement gap. Furthermore, Ravitch exposes how the reform movement is a back-door way to privatize schooling with monetary motives in mind. In response to these problems, Diane …show more content…
Another reality that Diane Ravitch sheds light on is the misconstrued theories about the achievement gap. Reformers often say that African American and Hispanic students have not made progress for decades (Ravitch, p.55). However, after looking at the data from NAEP, it is evident that this assertion by the reformers just simply is not true. Rather, these students have shown dramatic increases in math. Many do not recognize this though because white achievement has also improved which keeps the gap at large. (Ravitch, p.56) Throughout different grades, African Americans and Hispanics have shown remarkable progress in mathematics. There has been improvement in reading as well, just not as dramatic as the progress shown in math. Ravitch states, “Today’s reformers often imply that schools alone can close the achievement gaps among different groups. The like to point to exemplary charter schools with high test scores to prove their point” (Ravitch, p.59). While the belief that a charter school could bridge the achievement gap and overcome the disadvantages of poverty, it simply is not a realistically feasible concept. Thomas B. Timar of the University of California states, “Yet the gap is the symptom of larger social, economic and political problems that go far beyond the reach of the school… While schools are part of the solution, they alone cannot solve the problem of educational disparities” (Ravitch, p.60). Timar calls society to take action by
There are many problems in the American public education system today. Some of those include the quality of teachers, who have no real passion for the job, and are only allowed to remain in the position because of tenure privileges. Another issue is the state budgets that are allowed for public schools, with some states investing billions of dollars, and others prioritizing it lower on the list. In hot debate today is standardized testing, and the negative effect that it has on high school education, with the limits it places on teachers and what they have time to teach in the classrooms.
Diane Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University. She makes a very compelling, but extremely one-sided argument that educational reforms such as “No Child Left Behind” are causing students to have lesser opportunities in schools. Her argument is directed towards school boards, parents, and lawmakers who have the ability to change school and state policies on education. She wants those people to believe that the current school system is not effective in giving students a quality education and preparing them for life. Diane Ravitch’s argument brings up a question for readers: Is it beneficial for students when schools cut funding to non-tested subjects? According to Ravitch, most of the schools in the country, except for the ones in the most affluent communities base their
How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.
The “achievement gap” in education refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. The achievement gap is shown in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, among other success measures. It’s most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between African-American and latino students, towards the lower end of the performance scale, compared to their white peers, and the similar academic differences between students from low-income families and those who are privileged. In the past decade, scholars and policy makers began focusing their attention on other achievement gaps, such as those based on sex, English language and learning disabilities.
Diane Ravitch, an “educational historian”, answers four questions in her book, Reign of Error. Is American education in crisis? Is American education failing or declining? What is the evidence for reform being promoted by the government and adopted by many states? What should we do to improve our schools and the lives of our children? According to Ravitch, the “crisis” concerning American education is actually a myth. In this book, she addresses myth after myth providing adequate clarity and information. She looks deep into the facts and brings to light what is actually happening in education in America in the following areas: test scores, achievement gaps, graduation rates, teachers and test scores, merit pay, charter schools, virtual school, government involvement of failing schools. In the latter chapters she offers specific solutions with detailed plans and recommendations to preserve and improve American education. Ravitch’s thesis is that American public education must be protected against government privatization and that we must work together to improve our schools. I couldn’t agree more with Ravitch. Government involvement in education has negatively impacted education since the passing of NCLB. Our focus has changed from being innovative teachers to cookie cutter teachers. Government officials should not make decisions without advice from educational professionals. We must all work together to make education work.
In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as part of his “war on poverty” in hopes of closing the achievement gap between low income schools, which typically house larger percentages of student of color, and their more affluent counterparts. The act has been redefined and reauthorized every five years since its original enactment. However, despite the last 50 years of education reform, the disparity amongst high and low poverty schools is as large as it ever was. In turn, the disparity between students of color and white students has only grown. Clearly, the one size fits all approach to education America has been using does not work. The U.S public education system is broken and, as a country, very
Ever since the establishment of equal education in the United States, there has been a disparity in academic success between children of different races. The education of African American children has become a prime example of this. As discussed in the historical text, A Letter to My Nephew, which was written during the time of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s, African Americans were not given equal opportunities to succeed educationally and could do little to change their futures for the better. They had to work much harder than whites to receive even a portion of the recognition and success that whites achieved (Baldwin 1). Although many today believe America has overcome this problem, it still remains a pressing issue in many aspects of society, arguably the most important being education. The racial achievement gap, an important term to familiarize with when discussing this topic, refers to the disparity in educational performance between students of different races (National Education Association 1). As of now, although the education achievement gap has been narrowing, there still remains a large disparity between African Americans and their racial counterparts. According to a study by Roland G. Freyer and Steven D. Levitt, professors at Harvard University and W.E.B Du Bois Institute, respectively, African American students enter kindergarten already significantly behind children of other races, and their test scores continue to drop
Two articles, The Facts about the Achievement Gap by Diane Ravitch and From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid by Jonathan Kozol, provide facts about the crumbling education system in the inner cities of America. Schools there have shown to be segregated, poorly staffed, and underfunded. While the theme of both articles may be educational shortcomings, the content is surrounded by discussions of segregation. There are more underlying factors the authors are missing. Readers need to be rallied together in a unilateral cause to identify the issues affecting the nation’s education system, segregation is not one of them.
Public Education reform has emotional, political, and economic ties due to the impact America endures from the public school system. New American Academy writer Yehudi Meshchaninov writes,
Schools can’t solve the problem alone,” and” without local initiative, reformers cannot succeed.” The neighborhood is where the children grow up, so some of the small level programs depend on local promote. Third, do not ignore the stupendous gap of income. The achievement gap begins when children are young because some of them have had better medical care and have memorized more vocabulary than others because of highly educational parents. According to what Sean Reardon found, the income achievement gap is growing, and it is two times larger than black-white achievement. Therefore, to mend the schools, to act in concert with local, and not to neglect the large income achievement gap are the points that Diane Ravitch
The corporate school reform which has originated through political movement mainly has methods in which are taken from the political approaches. The fact that most of the school board members consists of those who professions in business instead of education is not favorable. The Failure of Corporate School Reform on page one states that the corporate school reformers try to “imagine public schools as private businesses, districts as markets, students as consumers, and knowledge as product.” If I am able to purchase my knowledge, that will be great. Yet, I am not able to do that, and I feel like the reformers are only looking at me as one of the pawns on the chessboard; the reformers are only thinking of us as money.
The purpose of this memo is to review and analyze the claims made by Diane Ravitch in her book, The Life and Death of the Great American School System, and to justly state if the authors claims are well-researched and based on facts or if her arguments and claims are biased and opinionated. More specifically, this memo will acknowledge the two central ideas of contemporary education reform today: choice and accountability. Advocates of school choice believe that it provides families with alternative options to choose their children’s education that works best for them while encouraging competition to better schools. However, opponents of school choice believe that it will erode the public school system until it is no more. Some argue that accountability is “the great cure” that will fix schools by testing and placing teachers accountable, this will encourage more effort and in turn promote student achievement. Others believe that too much accountability is the reason why our schools are failing. Ravitch seems to see choice and accountability as the main obstacles standing in the way of a thriving American school system. After much careful research, I have come to two conclusions. First, choice is not remedy to make education better; all that choice does is
One area of technological advancement I have a personal interest in is the global opportunity to improve the availability of a quality education. Education is changing at all levels due to advances in technology. In my opinion, the changes cannot be fast enough. The Huffington Post reports, “According to a study conducted in late April by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the U.S. can 't read. That is 14 percent of the population. 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates can 't read.” Crum (2013)
Public schools seem to be focusing only on subjects that are being tested for state funding really beneficial to the student? This is true, for I asked a few teachers; although some of this can be true facts the author, Diane Ravitch, does not cite from credited sources anywhere in the reading. Ravitch wants parents and policymakers to shift public education away from testing to a full liberal arts curriculum.This program tied school funding to standardized test scores in Math and Reading and as a result schools put their resources into testing and test prep for those courses. Ravitch argues that our education reform programs like, “No Child left Behind Act,” led to cuts in important parts of the curriculum and in order to focus on those we see cutbacks in funding in other areas. I believe public schools are not giving kids the best education they deserve. They simply are giving them an education that in return allows for good state funding. Ravitch believes the first place to start is to look at what most involved parents are demanding of their children’s schools.
The No Child Left Behind Act has become the main contributor to students becoming suppressed from receiving a proper preparation for college. In the article, “The Essentials of a Good Education”, the education expert Diane Ravitch argues that students are being scammed from their education and states that “the U.S. educational system has had an unhealthy focus on testing and accountability — unhealthy because it has driven public policy to concentrate on standardized tests of uneven quality at the expense of the more important goals of education” (112). Although the NCLB act is placed upon the affluent and working-class students, evidently the working-class undergoes the hardship to obtain a well-rounded education. In support to the