Diane Ravitch
Reforms meant to boost Tennessee schools actually could end up harming public education.
That’s the message coming to Chattanooga tonight from educational researcher and author Diane Ravitch, who said she hears regularly from Tennessee teachers who are fed up with changes to teacher evaluations, tenure and teaching standards.
“Most of them say it’s a disaster,” Ravitch said.
After bringing in education reform activist and former District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee last year, the Hunter Lecture Series will kick off this year with Ravitch’s lecture. Ravitch is a research professor of education at New York University, a former U.S. assistant secretary of Education and is the author of 20 books on education.
She argues that the American education system isn’t as bad as reformers such as Rhee say. And she views standardized testing and “privatization” through charter and virtual schools as some of today’s biggest threats to public education.