Changing the Poisonous Narrative

Since the publication of my book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, I have traveled the nation talking to many thousands of teachers, administrators, parents, researchers, and other members of the public about the future of public education. I explain that the current "reform" program has no evidence behind it; its failed ideas are harming students and the quality of education.

In the current climate of hostility toward teachers and public schools, educators are hungry for affirmation. The general public resists privatization and understands intuitively that our democracy depends on good public schools. 

Teachers are deeply demoralized. Many have told me that they will retire early. The "reformers" blame teachers for low test scores. To "reformers," nothing else matters—not parents, not poverty, not student effort—just teachers. "Reformers" believe that "bad teachers" are entirely responsible for student test scores. They like to say that "three great teachers in a row closes the achievement gap," but they never identify a school or district where this has actually happened.

In state after state, a small number of incredibly wealthy people with no connection to the public schools are supporting campaigns to undermine public education and to tie teachers' jobs to test scores. They have decided that education must be removed from democratic control and handed over to private management or to the mayor, who will side with private funders. At the same time, the budget for public schools is under siege, and the so-called "reformers" issue no protests. Is this a shell game where we argue about "reform" while our public schools are decimated by budget cuts?

Public education, open to all, helped make us a great nation. We can't afford to turn it over to entrepreneurs. Nor can we afford to continue with a flawed, punitive accountability system that narrows the curriculum, incentivizes cheating, and disheartens all those who labor daily to provide good education to our nation's children.

Post submitted by Diane Ravitch, research professor of education at New York University, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, former assistant secretary of education in the first Bush administration, and interviewed in the December Educational Leadership article, "Changing the Poisonous Narrative: A Conversation with Diane Ravitch."