A Must Listen: Diane Ravitch Says Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching from NPR Fresh Air
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This interview is a couple of weeks old, but it is one of the best discussions I have heard on the issues of American education. I encourage you to take time to listen or read the highlights.
My commentary: When you listen to the privatization advocates, they make sense. When you listen to testing reform groups, they make sense. When you explore slow learning, that makes sense. The truth is, the future is complex, and no one can answer whether America’s education challenges will be solved. We need tools like scenario planning to facilitate an open, honest, creative dialog that will help all approaches find common ground and a way forward. We must challenge the emerging ideologies of education that constrain our ability to teach children what they need to know to survive and thrive in the future.
Former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch was once an early advocate of No Child Left Behind, school vouchers and charter schools.
In 2005, she wrote, “We should thank President George W. Bush and Congress for passing the No Child Left Behind Act. … All this attention and focus is paying off for younger students, who are reading and solving mathematics problems better than their parents’ generation.”
But four years later, Ravitch changed her mind.
You can find the story here:
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