Where do I begin? I think I must start with Ravitch's previous book, DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM. I knew a bit about Ravitch, and her previous support for NCLB, and I was eager to see what had changed her mind. I remember reading the book, quite literally talking back to the pages: "We TOLD you so! We KNEW this wouldn't work!" When the law first passed, I stood toe-to-toe with friends who tried to convince me that this was going to be a good thing. I was unmoved. I was right.
So, to see Ravitch, a scholar, an historian, explain why she reversed her position, was a lesson in being a reflective practitioner, someone who made decisions from evidence and had the courage to step back from a position and say, "I was wrong." That is huge. She became my role model immediately.
I follow Ravitch's blogs, I watched her agonize over taking a position on Common Core. She made her thinking visible; she wrestled with big issues right in front of us. I see her champion students and teachers every day. I see her putting her reputation on the line for us all.
This book also had me talking back; but now I was yelling, "Yes! Thank you." Thank you for meticulously collecting education research about the current reform fads. Thank you for showing when there is and is not evidence. Thank you for annihilating 'reformers'' hunches about what should work. Thank you for presenting me with evidence I can easily use when I talk to my own policy makers who side with the 'reformers'. Thank you for solid recommendations of what WILL work in schools. Thank you for including my favorite: wraparound schools.
Thank you, from the English teacher, for creating a work of beautiful prose...impeccable grammar and usage...all those old-fashioned usage rules that most writers, even professionals, ignore...perhaps to make their work more accessible. Ravitch's prose is towering, respectful to the intelligence of her audience. She will not create a sloppy sentence just to talk down to readers. She lifts us up with her words. This book would be more than worthy of the kind of close reading David Coleman values -- for the sheer beauty of the construction of paragraphs and passages. There is a power here that often transcends the subject, to become poetry.
I read this book, underlining and writing notes...making connections. Wish I'd've counted the number of times the Gates Foundation was mentioned in the same sentence with the Broad Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation...the usual suspects are all there. their fingerprints create a nasty film over everything. I kept writing 'hunches' in the margins as Ravitch showed, time and again, no education research was utilized in 'reformers'' pronouncements. I made connections among her points and my own observations about life in Oklahoma Schools. Sad connections. I bristled it with stickies at lines I would want to revisit.
Then, I reread, typing up some of the lines I thought would be most useful in my work educating my Legislators about their failed policies. Seven typed pages later, I had created a mini-REIGN OF ERROR, portable and quotable. I've already shared quotations with friends looking for evidence about the wrong-headedness of TFA and Parent Trigger...these will rear their heads again in the next Legislative Session, and we're armed with facts to fight them.
I will be treating this book as the reference gem it is...using the content to fight hunches with facts and evidence; countering mushy hunches about what might work with strong, research-based recommendations for changes in our schools.
She sets out her purpose for writing this book on the first page: to answer four questions. Is American education in crisis? Is American education failing and declining? What is the evidence for the reforms now being promoted by the federal government? What should we do to improve our schools and the lives of our children? She delivered!
And if that wasn't enough, she showed herself to be a meticulous scholar with nearly 25 pages of charts and graphs in the appendix, over 30 pages of notes for the chapters, and an index of nearly 30 pages. The scholarship is there. And it dazzles the reader willing to read and learn.
So, from "I told you!" to "Yes, thank you!" in two important books.
Then, I reread, typing up some of the lines I thought would be most useful in my work educating my Legislators about their failed policies. Seven typed pages later, I had created a mini-Reign of Error, portable and quotable. I've already shared quotations with friends looking for evidence about the wrong-headedness of TFA and Parent Trigger...these will rear their heads again in the next Legislative Session, and we're armed with facts to fight them.
I will be treating this book as the reference gem it is...using the content to fight hunches with facts and evidence; countering mushy hunches about what might work with strong, research-based recommendations for changes in our schools.
She sets out her purpose for writing this book on the first page: to answer four questions. Is American education in crisis? Is American education failing and declining? What is the evidence for the reforms now being promoted by the federal government? What should we do to improve our schools and the lives of our children? She delivered!
And if that wasn't enough, she showed herself to be a meticulous scholar with nearly 25 pages of charts and graphs in the appendix, over 30 pages of notes for the chapters, and an index of nearly 30 pages. The scholarship is there. And it dazzles the reader willing to read and learn.
So, from "I told you!" to "Yes, thank you!" in two important books.
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