A passionate plea to preserve and renew public education, The Death and Life of the Great American School System is a radical change of heart from one of America’s best-known education experts.
Diane Ravitch?former assistant secretary of education and a leader in the drive to create a national curriculum?examines her career in education reform and repudiates positions that she once staunchly advocated. Drawing on over forty years of research and experience, Ravitch critiques today’s most popular ideas for restructuring schools, including privatization, standardized testing, punitive accountability, and the feckless multiplication of charter schools. She shows conclusively why the business model is not an appropriate way to improve schools. Using examples from major cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, and San Diego, Ravitch makes the case that public education today is in peril.
Ravitch includes clear prescriptions for improving America’s schools:
leave decisions about schools to educators, not politicians or businessmen
devise a truly national curriculum that sets out what children in every grade should be learning
expect charter schools to educate the kids who need help the most, not to compete with public schools
pay teachers a fair wage for their work, not “merit pay” based on deeply flawed and unreliable test scores
encourage family involvement in education from an early age
The Death and Life of the Great American School System is more than just an analysis of the state of play of the American education system. It is a must-read for any stakeholder in the future of American schooling.
Common sense and researchAugust 22, 2010 Christine 2 I'm a college professor who is appalled at many students' inability to read, understand and use the English language, write grammatically or clearly, and calculate. They seem to be able to think logically and critically about non-academic topics, but do not realize that thinking logically and critically is important in their classes. They want me to tell them in advance what will be on exams, so they will not have to learn anything but the answers to the questions that will be on the exam. Too many do not buy the textbooks and do not listen or take notes in class, because they assume that everything that they need to know will be a factual bullet point on the powerpoint slides (which they can download before class, but don't take the time to do, often simply copying them by hand during class, and then while we discuss the implications and applications of the information, play with their cellphones). I explicitly tell them that they need to read and study the book, listen and/or take notes in class, and ask questions/discuss points because my goals are for them to know and understand the facts, their connections and other implications, critique practices, attitudes, and research findings, and be able to apply the information and implications. For years I have wondered whether these students made assumptions about education from their previous experiences in school, and occasionally I've asked them. They have told me that even though previous teachers have told them that they needed to read the books and understand and apply the material, they didn't have to because the teachers gave them the questions that would be on the tests, as well as the answers to those questions. A standard warning in their online ratings of my course has been "You really do have to read the book," as though the raters realize that students will not believe the professor when he or she says that. Now in this book, Diane Ravitch answers my question about where students get the idea that education consists of memorizing the responses to specific questions so that they can give those answers on a multiple choice test. She is a historian of education, so the book is heavy on the recent history (last 40 years or so) of education and the politics of, and research in, education in America. That's fairly interesting, though I would have liked these sections to be a little less detailed with respect to names and places, or at least better summarized. However, I understand that historians document the events that lead to the outcomes. A few times her conclusions concerning research findings were illogical or incomplete. However, these were not major shortcomings. She made up for them by discussing what she sees as wrong in education, and with her suggestions for improvement, involving more than simple solutions. I would like to see more research data on how the problems she identifies have led to poorer student achievement (though she does give some data, and I realize that the book couldn't go on forever). I also would have liked to see more discussion of how to implement solutions to the complex problems, but that may be a topic for several other books. I hope that this book will begin that discussion and will lead to good research in necessary changes and how to make them. I think Americans want to improve education. The version of this book that I read was the kindle version. I noticed only one spelling error, and I suspect that was an optical character recognition error ("vanity" for "variety"). I was glad that an educational historian didn't make obvious spelling, grammar and word usage errors!
a must read for allAugust 19, 2010 book lover(Pasadena CA) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Diane Ravitch has written many thought provoking books (e.g. Language Police among one of them) and this book is no exception. Her style of writing is concise, interesting, and informative. While her ideas for some critics seem to be too "trendy" or "coming a little too late", they are right on target for what all of us should be talking about concering the future and fate of American public schools since NCLB became a federal law.
This book has gotten massive publicity and the topic couldn't be more timely or critical. As a result, whether you are agree or dissagree with her ideas, or assume there is or is not a "silver bullet", we can analyze her perspective of the situation as we continue to seek solutions to help public education. Educators need to join the conversation-- this book is a good example and model to use to begin or continue the discussion.
Great for educators and non-educators alikeAugust 18, 2010 K. Pece(Atlanta, GA) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Written in clear language, Ravitch's latest book is an eye-opener for anyone who thinks NCLB testing and the Bush and Obama administrations' insistence on performance pay will take us in the right direction in education.
Ravitch not only explains how we got where we are, but paints a picture of where we're headed, based on real data trends. Don't miss the chapter on how philanthropy in education (a la Gates & Walton Foundations) is driving public policy...not the other way around.
Essential readingAugust 15, 2010 Texas Brian(Austin, TX United States) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you've ever had a student in school, taught at a school, or hell -- attended school, then this book needs to be on your must-read list.
It's a little data-havy by necessity, but "The Death and Life" expertly makes the case for why schools aren't getting better (despite all the politicking that's been going on for years), and how we can fix schools in earnest.
It's compelling and thought-provoking, and makes the reader sit up and think, "Oh my God; why hasn't this hit me before now?"
It frankly should be required reading for all school administrators.
Is anyone listening?August 14, 2010 Kyle M. Norwood(Panorama City, CA) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book totally demolishes the arguments of testing-based reformers and would ideally lead to the immediate undoing of a decade of mistakes in American education. Plenty of people seem to be reading the book (it's #453 on Amazon at the time of this review). But is anyone in the education hierarchy listening? From President Obama on down, everyone with power over the system seems to be ignoring the signs of disaster, as if to say, "I've made up my mind, so don't bother me with the facts." If you want to know why public school teachers are feeling extremely frustrated, this book will tell you everything you need to know.
