Diane Ravitch

Ditto, Steve. She hits the nail squarely on the head with her observations about the "real" problems. I like to reference a quote from her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System regarding NCLB and the testing craze: "The strategy produced fear and obedience among educators...". (p16). As in the article "American Schools in Crisis," she reminds us that teachers should be leading the charge of defining reform, not being demonized as the problem. I was tickled by her reference to the origin of this craze when she reminded her reader that we are still here and the Soviet Union is not! She rightly cites points throughout history in which U.S. test scores were not the highest because we lead in innovation. Standardization produces the awe inspiring performances of lock-step that we see in North Korea and China, an unquestioning allegiance to authority. It negates innovation and creative problem solving and Ravitch is bold and courageous to say the emperor has no clothes. She is also right on the money when she addresses the role that poverty plays in our public school failures. How can children who live in homes with no books, little food, violence and trauma be expected to focus in a state of wonder at school? They are often in survival mode and barely getting through the day. Ravitch also points out that public schools a re mandated to accept and teach anyone who shows up on the doorstep, while private and charter schools can turn undesirable students away. I have a close friend who runs an urban Latino charter school and she described to me her admission policy. Parents are interviewed and judged by their willingness to enforce homework schedules and rigor in academics. Ravitch is correct to see this as an unlevel playing field when choosing which schools to penalize. And we should be suspicious of motive when corporate heads are leading the charge. Look at Pearson's profit margins!
I cannot close without bringing this issue home to my PDS experience. As I am in school that is obsessed with an attempt to raise test scores, it has a negative impact on what I am able to do in the classroom. The sad thing is that the test prep lessons are causing the kids to check out in boredom and then get scolded for what is a natural response to busy work for bureaucrats. Rejoice, those of you for whom it is not so. (Sorry for editorializing, Tim, but you did have us read Diane....)