Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Americas Public Schools by Diane Ravitch

Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Americas Public Schools Reviews

• 
  Christy

  No other advanced society has threatened the public part of their public schools like has happened in the US. Under the business ethos of "anything the public sector can do the private one can do better", we've gone remarkably far in privatizing one of our hallowed public goods, high-quality K-12 education for all, and are now no where near the top in either academic achievement nor equality of access based on class, race, or national origin (language) differences.
  
  K-16 schooling is a source of big profit now for big business, and it will take all our will to turn the ship around and remember that human concerns (like education) aren't always best considered as business ones.
  
  Ravitch was part of the New Left then did a trajectory to the Right (horrified at the collapse of curricular rigor and political correctness) but has since regained her senses to become the best critic of public education (including privatization, testing, and teacher training) that we have.
• 
  Miles

  This isn't a "great" book in the usual sense of the word, but I'm giving it five stars because I think there are few books out there that so intelligently and directly address this important issue at such a critical moment. It often feels like the components of American public life are being sold, one after the other, to private parties that flash a vulpine smile and offer those perennially comforting words: "We'll take care of this for you." Ravitch makes no mistake about assuring us that, as far as public schooling goes, we are definitely deeper into that process than most supporters of public education would like to admit.
  
  This is a personal read for me, as I have spent the last three years of my life dancing around the idea of being a teacher. I got my teaching credential the year after I graduated from college, but didn't look for a job right away because I was so frustrated and disillusioned during my short tenure as a student teacher in a relatively normal, lower to middle class Californian high school. The following summer, I worked in Washington, D.C. for two months at a summer school program for students from struggling districts. Despite having the best of intentions, the program proved heavy on "reform rhetoric" and extremely flimsy when it came to actually giving the kids what they needed. This was mostly because it was beyond our power to give the kids things they truly needed, such as more stable home environments, healthcare, and appropriate public programs funded by a society that genuinely cared about their well being. Instead, we spent a lot of time preparing them for the ultra-competitive process of applying to high school in our nation's capital. That's right, high school applications, not college. In fall 2012, I jumped on a plane to Japan to teach abroad for a year, and while the job certainly had its perks, I became more convinced than ever that neither my own culture nor those in Asia had the right approach to educating the next generation. I decided teaching wasn't for me, and came home. But I still live with two teachers; these matters are more to me than just intellectual curiosities.
  
  After a series of personally disappointing forays into the life of the modern teacher, to say that Diane Ravitch's wonderful new book is a breath of fresh air is a massive understatement. I can't even begin to count the number of times I found myself nodding uncontrollably, delighted to read something about education that sounded like it was coming from an actual educator, not some private company trying to sell textbooks or promote itself as the next big "savior of disadvantaged children."
  
  Before I gush too much, I will say that this book has a few drawbacks. First, Ravitch is a competent but often uninspiring writer, and she likes to belabor points she feels are particularly salient instead of stating them once and then moving on. Though it is brimming with useful information, this book repeats itself often. There is also the problem of using test scores and other educational "data points" to make assertions about the successes and/or failures of various programs and schools. While Ravitch is roundly critical of this approach, I felt a few times that she was relying on precisely the kinds of data she generally eschews in order to make a point. It didn't invalidate her arguments or soften her approach, but it reminded me of economic debates, where experts often use the same set of data to claim seemingly disparate results. Rather than discrediting Ravitch, this point actually supports her perspective, which is that measuring learning using test scores or other quantitative metrics isn't just ineffective, but also reductive and morally reprehensible. My last criticism is that this book is undeniably partisan. It doesn't take a direct liberal vs. conservative approach, but Ravitch is clear from the beginning that, at least when it comes to public education, she sees the private sector as the enemy; she goes out of her way to excoriate private interests whenever she can.
  
  Fortunately for Ravitch, some issues simply are partisan, and I think the current state of our nation's public schools is one of them. It's not that there aren't two sides to this argument, but simply that the argument for privatization of American education is absurd and undeniably dangerous to the integrity of our democracy. Ravitch doesn't attack privatized education because she hates business or capitalism, but rather because she knows exactly what is at risk when we turn over the schooling of our kids to people who think about profit margins first and about the future of our country second. Government is not a perfect entity, and it often does shortsighted or unsavory things in the name of its own perpetuation. But corporations, Ravitch reminds us, are far worse on that account. In addition, they are also new to the education business, which means that they don't know what they're doing, despite the flashy captions and anecdotes about "miracle schools." Better to stick with the devil you know (we need to get big money out of politics for this statement to truly make sense, but that's a whole other story). Ravitch also recognizes that conservatives ought to be outraged by this new development because they should want to protect a public institution that has long been an important pillar of our democracy. She attempts to use this point to unite the liberal and conservative points of view, but my guess is that her book will be labeled by the conservative media as a socialist, potentially job-killing hatchet piece designed to unjustly defame the generous philanthropists who are desperately trying to coax our schools into the twenty-first century. Nothing could be further from the truth.
  
  It's impossible to summarize here the preponderance of cogent arguments, all of which come supported by relevant research, that Ravitch offers in support of her overall message that privatizing education, whether by sending our kids to for-profit schools, starting ostensibly non-profit charters that outsource their management to private companies, or accepting vouchers that give families the illusion of choice while actually macerating the fabric of our already struggling public institutions, is a lousy idea. She covers the whole gamut of strategies used to siphon public money away from students and into corporate bank accounts, debunking each one not just with clear thinking, but germane data as well. I was surprised to learn that the notion that our public schools are "failing" or "in crisis" is an almost entirely manufactured claim. Sure, schools can always use more money and resources, but Ravitch does a remarkable job of showing how the movement toward standardization and privatization, coupled with the increased control of the federal government over educational policy and funding linked to high-stakes testing, has directly precipitated, rather than ameliorated, many of the the dire circumstances now faced by our public schools.
  
  Ravitch's staunch defense of teachers is enough to make anyone who has spent time in a modern classroom stand up and holler with relief. In a culture where teachers are being constantly scapegoated for the "failure" of students far and wide, it is refreshing to know that there are still people out there who believe in the essential goodness and professional competence of teachers, and who believe they are in the best position to determine what students require to learn. This book carefully exhumes the obvious but recently unheeded truths that educators are the best judges of what makes an "effective teacher," that educators are the people who know what their schools need, that educators are the ones who spend their entire professional lives working not just "for children," but with them. Ravitch goes to great lengths to expose the vicious and unwarranted attacks that have been leveled at teachers and administrators by those seeking to subvert the public school system and replace it with profit-based schools that depend on technology and trendy educational theories to cut costs and move our country even farther down the road toward inequality for all.
  
  But this book isn't just a list of complaints. The last third of Reign of Error is packed with solutions for how to stop the steamroller of private enterprise and reinvigorate our commitment to a strong, sustainable public school system. Ravitch doesn't pull any punches. It will be expensive. It will take time to observe concrete results, much more than we would like. It will require that we address the issues of poverty and school segregation with the seriousness they deserve. And it will demand that we make peace with that ugly truth no one wants to admit: even in the best school system, some children will fail to meet our preconceived standards. But Ravitch helps us see that this reality is only a problem if we perpetuate the lie that learning is a competition with winners and losers, rather than the greatest gift we could hope to share with our young ones. If we can overcome the crippling shortsightedness and greed seeking to dominate our public institutions of learning, I hope we will eventually realize that there are more important things than if a child gets into college or leaves school ready to be hired, things that comprise the heart of a good education: happiness, curiosity, artistic expression, moral imagination, and the ability to listen to others and be heard with grace. These are the qualities we should seek to instill in the youngest members of the American community. This book might help you find a way to get started.
• 
  Jeff Raymond

  I can't remember the last time I was so frustrated reading a book. I don't like to say a book is one star very often, because I believe one star represents some sort of irredeemable qualities that cannot be rescued. Sadly, this is one of those books, as it's a pile of strawmen in a heap, knocked over by ridiculous conclusions and poor logic.
  
  On the basic stuff, I actually found myself nodding in agreement with her. There are a lot of myths about education reform that should probably be addressed, there is a problem with testing, with Common Core, with all sorts of different ways to address it.
  
  And then comes the "schools are being privatized by corporate interest groups" conspiracy theory.
  
  It's like someone talking about global warming, making a ton of great points, and then blaming the whole thing on moon men. After spending pages talking about what is and isn't a problem, the solution is to say there isn't really a problem, teachers and education are better than they've ever been, and those evil ALEC corporate funded stooges are lying to you about all of it while privatizing public schools beneath our noses. Vouchers? ALEC-positioned attempts to get public money in private schools. Merit pay and tenure reform? ALEC-positioned attempts to run schools more like the businesses that now apparently own them. Common Core? Corporate enrichment by Bill Gates. There are great arguments for and against all of these things. Ravitch fails to make them, instead choosing to address arguments no one is seriously making and ensuring that she positions those who disagree with her as pro-business stooges.
  
  The issue is not so much with her research (although there have been some murmurings about that) but with her conclusions. Beyond the conspiracy theorizing, her position is profoundly anti-technology, anti-reform period (except when it benefits whatever standard position she holds), and pro-expansion of the only things both sides of the debate agree with, yet she does not. For as much as she feels her position is based in data, her strong feelings toward universal preschool (and things that look like Head Start even though she doesn't name it as such) is especially baffling.
  
  Overall, this is not a book that's worth your time. Even an education extremist as myself who really thinks the entire system needs to be imploded and reworked from the bottom up recognizes that it's an extreme position at its core. Ravitch not only fails to recognize her errors and her issues with the conclusions, but considers herself in the position of the stalwart defender of a system that, because it's working better than ever, needs few changes outside of the ones that would benefit her preferred groups. Very unfortunate.
• 
  Clif Hostetler

  This is the best defense of public schools I've come across. Americans who have not read this book are probably insufficiently informed to vote wisely in local and state elections.
  
  Contrary to what one might conclude from media reports, levels of educational achievement and graduation rates in the United States have been consistently rising over the years. Surprise! Achievement scores are now “at their highest point ever recorded.” Achievement has been going up for all racial groups, but the gaps between the groups persist. (It is interesting to note that current age 9 average math score for blacks is now equal to what the age 9 math score was for whites in 1982, but the gap continues because scores for whites have gone up.)
  LINK to NAEP Report
  
  But supporters of charter and on-line schools point out that many other countries have higher levels of educational achievement, and their proposed solutions are needed to catch up. It’s interesting to note that these other countries achieve their educational success without the use of charter schools, virtual on-line schools, and punitive threats of firing teachers and closing schools.
  
  Ravitch provides a comparative look at Finland which consistently scores high on educational achievement tests. She shows that they obtain their success by respecting their teachers as professionals, and their students don’t take standardized tests until it's time to enter college. How does Finland do it? There is one very significant difference between Finland and the United States. Finland has a much smaller percentage of students living in poverty (3%) compared to the United States (20%). It just so happens that the family wealth/poverty level is a significant indicator of probable academic success. No charter or virtual on-line school has been able to overcome the effects of poverty and segregation for their average achievement scores when they’re required to accept the same students as public schools.
  
  Some promoters of charter schools criticize public schools for using poverty is an excuse. But experience has shown that charters are quick to use it as an excuse when they fail to perform any better. In case you think on-line computer classes are the answer you need to read
  this article.
  
  Ravitch doesn't have much good to say about standarized tests, "No Child Left Behind" or "Race to the Top." She has plenty of criticism for both Democrats and Republicans. And she very critically lays into some of the well-known private-sector leaders and political officials — among them Arne Duncan, Joel Klein, Bill Gates, Wendy Kopp and Michelle Rhee. The scary thing about the private for-profit charter school chains is that they are now a formidable political lobby group with lots of campaign contributions for friendly politicians. They're not going away anytime soon.
  
  Ravitch acknowledges that her previous books were criticized for being long on criticism and short on suggestions of ways to improve the American educational system. She says the solution is simple. Just look at what wealthy private schools and public schools in the wealthy suburbs are doing. Their test scores compare well with international comparisons. In order to duplicate in all schools what they are doing will require providing good prenatal care. Then there should be vastly expanded prekindergarten programs, more comprehensive medical and mental health provisions, smaller classes, and diagnostic testing that, unlike a standardized exam, show us where a child needs specific help. Ravitch says we should honor the teaching profession by strengthening the profession with higher entry standards. She doesn't think that answer is in recruiting "enthusiastic amateurs" who teach short term and move on to other professions.
  
  She describes stick-and-carrot incentives such as merit pay as "the idea that never works and never dies." She says such incentives undermine the spirit of collaboration by pitting teachers against each other. She also deplores humiliating practices such as publishing teachers' names beside students' test scores. She tells of one teacher publicly humiliated as the "worst teacher in New York" when all teacher scores were published. After news reporters circled her house hounding her for interviews it was revealed that she taught a class of English language learners who moved on to regular classes when they were able. It's obvious not all students are equally teachable. Tying pay to student performance will provide a strong disincentive for teaching disadvantaged students, or teaching students who are already at the high end of achievement levels with little room for improvement.
  
  This "
  Children as Blueberries" story is referenced by this book. If you haven't heard the story it's worth reading.
  
  I hope this book is a best seller and widely read. I hope it puts a nail into the coffin of the for profit privatization movement in education. I hope it also increases the willingness of voters to support spending on public schools, and providing the other services and changes that Ravitch recommends to equalize access to good education.
• 
  Greg Brozeit

  Students of current American public policy should have this book in their library. Ravitch lays out a compelling case that citizens and policy makers should act decisively to protect and save our nation's pubic education systems from short-sighted profiteers and ideologues who understand neither the history or value of the fundamental institution that makes our nation great.
  
  Ravitch makes empirical, pragmatic and evidence-based policy arguments in accessible prose to explain why public education should matter to every American, including everyone who does not have children in public schools. She clearly explains how public education is and has been threatened by, as Isaiah Berlin once wrote, the "reactionary forms of irrationalism" who are taken seriously by those who shape our national political debate. Her clear-sighted critiques of how the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top policies of the past decade have accelerated and distorted the mission and purpose of public education is impossible to ignore or refute.
  
  Ravitch masterfully exposes the many radical reformers whose simplistic, unproven ideological and agenda-driven "reforms" have perverted and destroyed too many public education systems throughout the nation. Instead her conclusions include focusing on health care beginning at the pre-natal stage and continuing through adulthood. It includes respecting, supporting and honoring the professionalism of teachers and administrators. And most of all, it means restoring local, democratic control of public education.
  
  Like the best works of Kevin Phillips and William Julius Wilson, Ravitch's case goes far beyond the simplistic labels of "conservative" and "liberal" that dominate today's political discourse. She lays out a workable framework that all Americans should embrace and commit to achieve. Acted upon and taken together with Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, Reign of Error is one of those rare books that actually can change the course of the nation and reinvigorate the idea and promise of the American Dream. Or we can at least hope so.
• 
  Virginia Birks

  This book is a must read for all supporters of public education, especially for its future.
• 
  Mehrsa

  I agree with Ravich and I think she's absolutely right about the problems with public education, but I had two issues with the book: 1. What she is describing happened across the board to practically every other sector as well--neoliberalism, deregulation, privatization, and data for data's sake evaluation. Some broader context would have been useful. 2. At times, she strayed into over-reaction and polemic as opposed to just critique. Still, this is a must-read for anyone interested in education policy
• 
  Kay

  I understand why Ravitch is considered a saint by many progressives. Education issues inevitably become heated, and Ravitch is a fierce adversary. She arms herself with both both passionate argument and careful statistics -- but she never manages to wade too deep into either.
  
  With each chapter clocking in at less than ten pages, she does a quick hit on why "education reform" types are corporate shills and then moves on, often using straw-man arguments and contradictory evidence. She defended the "democracy" of locally controlled schools, while a few pages later, decries increasing segregation in public schools -- either unaware of or unwilling to address how those two things might contradict one another. She actually uses international test scores to demonstrate their uselessness in assessing learning. And after chapter after chapter of bashing the charter school movement, she admits that charter schools are here to stay, and we should probably come up with some modest reforms for incentivizing a focus on students. She says teachers are understandably angered by new corporate overlords who don't have education experience, but she never quite explains how we can have rich learning environments without figuring out what, exactly makes those teachers effective.
  
  When you get down to it, it seems likely that Ravitch might not be completely unreasonable, but her career has become successful by tapping into teachers' radicalization as a response to accountability movements. Ravitch might not want to find common ground between the two -- it would lead to a decline in book sales.
  
  But as someone who stands between the two (or perhaps even leans more toward the education reform side of things), I know that the more you learn about education, the less clarity you have about it. How Ravitch remains so clear-eyed about it makes me think she'd rather maintain a shallow understanding, or at the least, present one to her readers.
• 
  Marks54

  This is a superb book that critiques the current reform movement in American primary and secondary education. Everybody who is interested in the state of public education should read Diane Ravitch's book carefully.
  
  Ravitch is an accomplished historian of American education who worked in the Department of Education during the reform efforts of President Bush. She soured on the reform movement, rethought her positions, and has come to be sharply critical of this reform effort -- which is now quite mainstream in US educational policy.
  
  Ravitch is an advocate who is an active participant in education policy debates. What makes this book so distinctive is that it combines a clear critical position with a devotion to scholarly rigor that is seldom matched elsewhere. One can certainly disagree with Ravitch, but to do so credibly, it will be necessary to confront her arguments and her research and show what is lacking. That will not be an easy task.
  
  The beginning of the book -- and in my opinion its strongest part -- is a systematic review of the central tenants of the reform movement -- that US education is broken and needs to be fixed, that systematic testing is crucial to producing reform, that bad teachers are a major source of educational deficits in US schools, that the shortcomings of US education can be remedied by firing bad teachers, closing under-performing schools, and bringing new blood into the teaching profession, through such programs as "Teach for America". In the first part of the book, Ravitch goes through the reformist critique in detail and shows how it neither makes sense conceptually nor is supported by any credible longitudinal data. There is no crisis, there is no decline in test scores, schools are generally educating well - although there are gaps with poor and disadvantaged populations. The reformist answers to the crisis (which isn't a crisis) are both poorly thought through and lacking in credible research support. Charter schools, for example, are not the magic "silver bullet" that their proponents claim. Some do well while others fail. Overall, they do not outperform public schools and when they do, the result is credibly linked to their ability to exclude high cost and high attention students that public schools must accept.
  
  In the middle part of the book, Ravitch looks at reform efforts and they do not come up well. Not only are the results limited and likely not superior to public schools, but the new schools formed through privatization also suffer from a range of agency problems that raise fundamental issues about the wisdom of outsourcing public education to the for-profit sector.
  
  The last portion of the book discusses solutions. Consistent with her story, Ravitch does not offer global solutions - but remember she does not grant the global problem definition claimed by reformers. Tying these last chapters together is the idea that educational deficits are a result of poverty and class and that the solutions to educational deficits are known - provide everyone with the education that the rich provide their own children. Is this practical? Perhaps not, but it is more satisfying that being bamboozled by the rhetoric of corporatist privatization.
  
  Some readers may be troubled by the sharply critical orientation of the book, but it is well written and organized and the reader is provided with sufficient cites and data that they can check out her claims for themselves if they wish.
  
  This is one of the best policy-related books I have read in years.
  
  
• 
  Tanya

  Excellent!! Diane Ravitch not only presents the evidence against the reform movements, but provides solutions to the problems that are plaguing schools. As a teacher at an "apartheid" school I agree with almost all of her arguments. Teaching to the test and the focus on standardized tests is not what makes for a quality education. Affluent and suburban schools would not stand for it, so why do our neediest children have to have schools this way. I am glad that my district has managed to keep charters out and I have seen first-hand how Parent Revolution tries to get their hands into a district. I'm not saying that all of the teachers at my school are excellent, but the majority care and bust their behinds for the students.
  I think this book should be read by anyone who cares at all about the education system in our country, and all administrators and school boards. People need to see what is going on and not just be swayed by slick presentations and skewed data. NAEP shows that kids are doing better and schools are not as bad as the media seems to portray them.
• 
  Kaethe

  I am going to have many reactions to this book, many of which will be affirmative, but not all. She's set out her solutions on pages 7-9, so yeah, I am on her side.
  

  We know what works. What works are the very opportunities that advantaged families provide for their children. In homes with adequate resources, children get advantages that enable them to arrive in school healthy and ready to learn. Discerning, affluent parents demand schools with full curricula, experienced staff, rich programs in the arts, libraries, well -maintained campuses, and small classes. As a society, we must do whatever is necessary to extend the same advantages to children who do not have them. Doing so will improve their ability to learn, enhance their chances for a good life, and strengthen our society.

  
  
  

  "Race to the Top abandoned equity as the driving priciple of federal aid. From the initiation of federal aid to local school districts in 1965, Democratic administrations had insisted on formula grants, which distributed federal money to schools and districts base on the proportion of students who were poor, not on a competition among states."

  
  
  Now I'm reading about how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has affected public education. Fun Fact: neither Bill nor Melinda, nor their three children have attended public schools. Nonetheless, their foundation has so far provided $3 billion to schools since 1999 for initiatives that were not evidence-based and which did not end up actually helping. I'd love to know what actual teachers might have done with those kind of resources.
  
  To be fair, it is entirely possible that the Gates Foundation isn't making enormous grants to schools in order to enbiggen the market for computers and software, certainly there's no reason to associate the founder of Microsoft with any nefarious goal in making computers and Microsoft software ubiquitous in a monopolistic sense; the grants may be stemming from a "computers can fix everything" attitude that shows a charming naivete. What's the motivation behind the Walton family Foundation giving millions in grants to schools, particularly cyber charter schools?
  
  One of the things Ravitch does is show how much money, primarily through campaign contributions, has gone directly to (primarily Republican) politicians at both the state and federal level. Apparently there is a huge income stream in public education for software and testing and cyber charter schools. Did you know that cyber schools get as much public money per pupil as brick and mortar schools, despite their very different expenses? Turns out the laws establishing the rights of cyber schools often come with none of the checks on finances that real public schools go through, no auditing, no accounting required? I'm sure it's just coincidence that when students using them return to their regular school (many do, or drop out of school entirely) the cyber schools do not take them off their books but instead continue to collect from the state. Fun fact: many state laws on cyber schools and/or charter schools don't require the same regular evaluation for success as far as graduation rates and standardized test scores. Likewise many states have only theoretical requirements for homeschooling: there isn't any checking up on testing or curricula or "attendance". Many of the numerous private/public school hybrids are exempt from scrutiny, even, perhaps especially if, a for-profit entity is involved.
  
  ***
  
  Some of this I knew going in, even if I didn't have all the facts and charts and such. But here's the thing I didn't realize, the thing that angers and frustrates me. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is behind most of these state laws. I realize that many elected state and federal representatives are not lawyers. That's a huge selling point for a lot of people. And it's not as if lawyers are inherently better at setting an agenda to address national issues, debating the value of different courses of action, looking at research, etc. I do realize that the business of crafting law has become so involved, so technical, and so vast as to be (somewhat) unworkable. So the elected lawmakers don't make the laws. They take already-written laws from special interest groups, lobbyists, corporate interest groups and such and they sponsor them and put them forward for consideration. It may be that no one in a legislature ever reads a law like this. It's presented as a bill to do some innocuous thing or other that sounds like a good idea to someone. And, if it is a bill from ALEC, it will be put forward by republican lawmakers and voted and passed by them if they have a majority. There is nothing inherently wrong in this.
  
  But. Just as many people see the problem with corporate money in elections, or with one industry lobby having disproportionate influence (the NRA), this isn't how we want our lawmaking to be done. The idea we have is that someone spots a need or a deficiency and says "we ought to fix this" and comes up with a way to do it. We would, I think, expect input from interested groups, research into the best solutions other places have used, some discussion about moral hazards and unintended effects, the costs of action versus inaction, etc. We want to believe that there are people who share our beliefs and who are thinking about this stuff, deliberating over it, finding the best solution in good faith. We want Mr. Smith, impassioned speeches, reasoned debate. We tolerate some deal-making and compromise and such.
  But ALEC isn't operating in good faith, and the elected officials who put forward these laws, and the others who pass them without bothering to read them; these people aren't acting in good faith either. If we're going to sell out public education to corporate interests, let's at least put the bidding out in the open on ebay. If it's wrong for me to try and sell my kid, why is it okay for my state legislature or my president to do so?
  
  Library copy
• 
  Patrick

  10 stars. Please read this Goodreads friends! Even if you aren't usually interested in educational nitty-gritty, read the book because this is affecting your kids' schools.
  
  I've finally finished the last bit. The last three chapters are important and sum up the problems with education and society, and the wrongness of the proposed reform solutions.
  
  I LOVE this. I didn't wait to lend my book because this information has to become part of neighborhood wisdom in order to stop the steamroller of crap PR telling America the opposite of the truth: that our schools suck and are responsible for poverty.
  
  The writing may only be 4 stars, but the importance and timeliness of the information makes it a 5 stars plus. There are sad and revealing examples of educational profiteering in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Florida, and other states. Most of these ideas are being pushed in Utah as well.
  
  Dramatic claims that our public education system is "broken" and must be replaced with some radical fix are constantly blared through the media. These claims were repeated for the last week or more on NBC's mostly one-sided Education Nation. Condoleeza Rice was here yesterday claiming our schools "are a threat to national security."
  
  Did you know that despite the huge problems that exist, test scores and graduation rates at public schools are at their highest ever? That the "crisis" in education because other countries have higher test scores has been the same since the 1960's? That our middle-class kids score at or above Korea and Finland etc. on these international assessments? The most serious of our problems all correlate to poverty and the break up of families. We may not agree with every solution Ravitch proposes for poverty, but it becomes easy to see that "silver bullet" magic schools that make profits, take away public control, or pick and choose their students undermine our communities.
  
  Ravitch's position on charters is reasonable and wise. Her examples about vouchers, corrupt charters, utterly corrupt e-schools, the so-called parent trigger, and the failure of merit pay need to be read and understood by everyone. The vast majority of education "reformers" have financial conflicts of interest.
  
  This is an important book. Regular people all over America are reviewing it positively and getting their eyes opened, with a few attack pieces by corporate mouthpieces who admit they haven't read the book. There has been some major name calling and whinyness reminiscent of my jr. high students. Their claims that paying attention to poverty is "soft racism" and every single one of their justifications for profit-based models of public education are specious.
  
  Ravitch provides history and context for 4 chapters, and then critiques claims made by reformers for 16-17 chapters, then proposes research-based, common sense methods to improve education for the last 10 or 12. I don't 100% agree with every bit of every remedy in the last 10 chapters, but I agree w/ 80-90%, and they are all things I want for my family or my community.
  
  The only thing I dislike about the book is the cover. Her last cover was perfect to pass along; this one is too loud and reminiscent of a fad diet book.
• 
  Joleigh

  Diane Ravitch has validated my life in the classroom and what I have been saying for the past ten or more years. This is a must read for anyone concerned with education at any level. She debunks some of the myths being bandied about, clarifies who is funding some of the so-called reforms, and than provides some very clear thoughts on what really needs to be done to improve our educational system. While there were times in past years that she and I were at odds about education, we are now on the same page! We are very fortunate that she is still involved in education and we should all listen to her! This is a woman who knows what she is talking about, unlike some of the people trying to lead education today (yeah, that means you Duncan and Gates!). She tells it like it was, is and should be and has statistics and studies to back her up. Truly, read the book!
• 
  Jeff Larsen

  Diane Ravitch has written the definitive account of the false promises behind the reform (privatization) movement in public education. There is no better explanation of what is wrong with the push for more charter school and more standardized tests than within the pages of this book.
  
  Ravitch doesn't stop with her well-researched take down of the privatization movement. She offers sound advice for fixing our broken schools, too.
  
  This book should be read by every legislator in every state, every member of the US Department of Education, every parent who cares about her children's education, and every citizen who cares for the future of our democracy.
• 
  Jennifer Mangler

  I remember vividly a moment from my first year of teaching. All teachers, K-12, were sitting in one room for a professional development day. The superintendent was talking about some new initiative (like many new initiatives it came and went, and I honestly do not recall what it was). The veteran teacher sitting next to me, a woman I greatly admire and consider one of the best teachers I have ever had the pleasure to know and work with, whispered to me, “this is not what it seems. This is leading to the dismantling of public education. That is their goal.” That was 14 years ago. I didn’t know what to think at the time. Now, I see very clearly how right she was. So many people criticize Diane Ravitch for being paranoid or seeing a conspiracy in the reform movement. Well, sometimes you need to be paranoid because you're right. Not everyone in the “reform movement would advocate for privatization, but make no mistake: the people who are funding the movement absolutely desire this.
  
  This teacher has been so incredibly frustrated by “education reform” for so many years. Non-educators have dominated the discussion, and what seems self-evident to them often seems asinine to those of us in the trenches. It boils down to the central premise of education: it is not, as they assert, to prepare you for the workforce; rather, it is to prepare you be a productive citizen in our society. The premise you start with matters. Starting with the first premise means you focus solely on skill acquisition devoid of context and meaning. Starting with the second premise means you focus on helping students develop their curiosity, passion for learning, and their character.
  
  If you care about public education in the United States, read this book. Read it, and then pass it on to someone else. Encourage them to pass it along once they’re done. Mention it to every member of your family and to all your friends. Encourage them to read the book. Then encourage them to talk about it. People who truly love public education in this country need to get as many of our fellow citizens as possible to read and talk about this book.
• 
  James (JD) Dittes

  Diane Ravitch is the rarest (and finest) of intellectuals: one who both admits when they are wrong and then demonstrates the reasons why.
  
  Ravitch is a former Bush (I) Administration education official, and she targets her strongest criticism at the "big guys," Bush (II) and Obama, whose "reforms" played into the hands of the charter and privatization crowds by dramatically increasing testing, and ratcheting up teacher evaluation and de-unionization to inspire a mass exodus from a profession that was already struggling to hold on to its teacher. Her greatest ire is reserved for meddling foundations (Gates and Walton) that push reforms and insist on accountability--all the while resisting accountability for their past mistaken ideas.
  
  As an historian of public education, Ravitch can go far back along the accountability pathway. She shows that Americans have been grumbling about public schools since the 19th Century--only in the 21st Century do private interests feel brazen enough to full undermine the system. She shows that schools are improving--not failing--using NAEP scores that go all the way back to 1972.
  
  This is a great book for anyone whose present or future depends on a strong education system in the United States. I recommend it highly.
• 
  Jane

  Fortunately, Ravitch is thorough in her call to arms against the move by a handful of leaders, entrepreneurs and politicians who want to turn public schools into private enterprises.
  Unfortunately, the book is quite repetitive as she uses the same ideas in multiple chapters.
  
  Fortunately, Ravitch cites research and specific cases to support her points.
  Unfortunately, many are extremes, especially in her critique of charter schools. I picture opponents using counter-examples quite easily to support their positions.
  
  Fortunately, Ravitch offers solutions for helping more children learn.
  Unfortunately, they are big-picture policies and proposed movements, such as dealing with poverty, segregation and health care. Little help for the third graders of 2013.
  
  I agree with Ravitch and am glad she pulled this info into one volume, but its content and format may not allow it to have the desired effect of rallying the public...
• 
  Claudia

  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 a friend 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. 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.
• 
  Katie

  While large parts of Ravitch's claims are evidence-based and supported by ample research, her frequent use of straw-man arguments and anecdotal evidence makes it hard to trust her presentation of the remainder of her arguments. I approached this book hoping to learn more about the complicated issue of education (both public and private) in America today. It was so biased as to be unhelpful in that regard. Ravitch's goal is not to inform, but to persuade--specifically to persuade her reader that public schools are good and that charter schools are evil.
  
  I agree with several of her points: that public schools are an important institution that deserve to be treated with respect and cared for; that teachers deserve tenure (when they've earned it) and respect; that balanced curriculum, small class sizes, and expert teachers are essential; that standardized tests are not everything; and most importantly, that the re-segregation of our schools is an enormous problem that must be immediately addressed. However, despite agreeing with Ravitch's positions on several issues, I was more and more wary of her research as she went on cherry-picking evidence and casting all education reformers as greedy, heartless, and ineffective capitalists preying on helpless communities.
  
  Her argument that public schools are better than ever is just plain fallacious, and while I agree with her that there is no silver bullet to fixing them, she blames literally every failure on poverty, without admitting that there are solutions within reach of willing educators. I wholeheartedly agree that poverty needs to be addressed in public policy and that it will always effect learning, but I vehemently disagree that educators can throw up their hands and say, "What can we do?" just because they have to serve poor children. Scores of research demonstrate that there are solutions--Ravitch even paraphrases some of this research before dismissing it--and that great teachers can have an enormous impact on their students' outcomes.
  
  I wish she hadn't written in such a vitriolic, biased way, because I think she would have had a greater impact and helped further the debate, rather than hurting her own credibility and casting all who disagree with her as in the pocket of large corporations.
• 
  Jack

  This is an important book. For anyone even mildly interested in education policy, this is a must-read.
  It has been a long accepted "fact" that education in America is failing, and that things are getting worse, and that teacher unions are pretty much to fault for that, and that we need LOTS of tests to hold teachers and principals accountable. Well, if you want a counter-argument to that narrative, THIS BOOK IS IT! If Ravitch is even half-right, and I suspect her average is better than half, then we really need to think some more about education in America.
  I don't agree entirely with every suggestion she has, and I also think that the country is not interested in paying the bills her ideas will cost, but I am watching the testing regime as it slowly encroaches on my child's education, and I'm seeing more closely what it does to teachers, and I think we have gone far too far with it. Also, I think she makes a convincing case that our schools - or many of them - aren't hardly as bad as "reformers" would have us believe. Beyond that, having read about education in South Korea, among other places, I don't want my kid going through ANY of that nonsense. Another useful counterpoint to the "reformers" is that Finland, the new utopia of education, pretty much rejects every reformer idea we see bubbling up here. Again, one doesn't have to agree with every point Ravitch makes, but I think it should be required reading for anyone who has an interest in the issue.
  The major flaw is that the book could probably be 100 pages - way too much repetition.
• 
  Ryan

  Reign of Error dissects the modern school reform movement and reveals it to be based on false narratives driven by bipartisan wealthy and corporate interests intent on privatizing the public school system. The reform movement’s narrative states that public education is broken and it is the fault of principals, teachers, and teacher unions. The only way to fix the problem, according to this narrative, is to curb union power, hold teachers accountable for test scores, regularly fire teachers and principals, close bad schools and give students a choice of charter schools and vouchers. This narrative, however, is wrong on almost every point.
  
  The author, Diane Ravich, a former Assistant Secretary of Education under George H.W. Bush, highlights the failure of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Obama’s Race to the Top and how both, based on the reform movement narrative, fueled the privatization of education through the charter system, education consultants and services, and vouchers.
  
  With nearly every generation going back to the 19th century there has been panic about failing schools with little evidence to support it. The current panic is no different. High School dropout rates are at historic lows and graduation rates at historic highs. The narrative that test scores are falling is false. Test scores have steadily increased since they were measured nationally starting in the 1970s. The U.S. has actually improved its international test scores relative to other countries, contrary to popular belief. Regardless, there is no correlation between test scores and the economic success of a nation. In fact, the U.S. leads the world in innovation in part because our education is decentralized and allows for creativity, individualism, and curiosity. An emphasis on test scores moves us away from these features in our school system. Many Asian countries that perform very well on test scores are instead trying to reform their education systems to be more like ours.
  
  Evaluating teachers based on test scores is both unfair and useless because test scores are determined more by students’ life outside the school than by teachers. Also, test scores don’t measure characteristics important for success in life like curiosity, creativity, initiative, social skills, etc. Indeed, the ability to perform well on a test is less important for being successful in life than the ability to work well with others, persevere when confronted with difficulties, the ability to listen and communicate well, empathy, good judgement and motivation.
  
  Likewise, merit pay for teachers as a way to motivate them to be better teachers has been tried many times in the past and has always proven a failure. Instead, such pay causes division and acrimony among school staff.
  
  Nor is there any correlation between teacher tenure and seniority with student performance. Getting rid of either won’t improve schools or learning.
  
  Firing teachers and closing schools was expected to fix failing schools, but instead it has just created turmoil and demoralization among school staff.
  
  The reform movement narrative argues that competition and the freeing of charter schools from teacher unions (protecting bad teachers) and bureaucratic school district oversight makes charter schools better than public schools. In fact, charter schools on average perform no better than public schools and cost the same or more to operate. Many charter schools are just money making schemes with little public oversight, resulting in fraud and abuse. They often reject English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL), disabled and poor performing students in order to boost test score averages and they undermine public schools by draining away the best students and financial resources. Online only charter schools in particular are get-rich-quick schemes that have very poor performance outcomes.
  
  Public schools are heavily segregated but charter schools are even more so and there is a long list of detrimental effects associated with segregation and equally positive effects associated with desegregation.
  
  Vouchers also have proven to be ineffective and are often used to send kids to unregulated schools, often religious, with poor standards.
  
  What the school reform movement fails to recognize is that schools are in trouble because of concentrated poverty and racial segregation. Struggling education performance can be fully explained by poverty, students with disabilities, ESL students and racial segregation. All of these factors explain racial disparities in school performance as well.
  
  The solutions the author advocates for instead of those pushed by the school reform movement include improved prenatal care; universal pre-k that is based on play, socialization and age appropriate learning; small class sizes; limited testing at the elementary level with art, music, play and nature as components to education; a diverse curriculum with libraries, nurses, psychologists, guidance counselors and social workers available to students; after school and summer programs; tests designed by individual teachers for their classes; higher standards for becoming a teacher or principal; adequate and equitable school funding; reduction of poverty and racial segregation; at home visits to help parents with parenting skills; and decentralized and democratically controlled school systems.
  
  To help troubled schools or teachers, we should identify their problems and provide the resources, guidance and help needed for them to improve before ever considering firing teachers or closing schools. More experienced teachers should help mentor struggling ones, for example.
  
  Public schools are integral to our democracy and central institutions in our communities. They unite our society and we must get reform right and not fall victim to false narratives driven by wealthy and corporate interests.
  
  This book is very repetitive and a bit outdated in that it was written before the passage of Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in 2015, which gave states more flexibility in determining responses to low school test scores and the standards schools are held to. The Act didn’t resolve the problems with No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top, but it did ease the burden of those laws. Despite these shortcomings, the content of the book is excellent and the best book to read for anyone interested in education policy and school reform.
• 
  Judy

  Ravitch was the assistant Secretary of Education under the first Bush. In this book she presents a good case for what is wrong in education isn't the fault of teachers and bad teaching, but a concerted effort by 'certain interest groups' to do away with public education in this country. As a teacher who has watched to public schools be beaten up and attacked for nearly 20 years, I enjoyed what she had to say and agree with much of her theories. I don't know is our schools can be saved as the movements continue to grow in home schooling, online schools, and charter schools, but I do believe something will be forever lost in this nation that made our nation great.
  If you're an educator you need to read this book.
• 
  Tycelia

  No surprises here if you've ever been a public school teacher, especially in an urban area with poverty. Everything has changed from when I began to teach in 1965 to when my subject was cut a few years ago. I taught in 13 schools-- preschool, middle school, jr. high, sr. high, & adult ed in 2 countries and 3 states. The problems have not changed and solutions have not been addressed because it requires profound social change. Poverty must be addressed. Childhood poverty in the United States is higher than in any other advanced nation. In Chicago, the percentage of children living in poverty, ages 6-17, is 35.2% and in extreme poverty 15.6%. I recommend this book to parents, educators and anyone interested in what is happening to our public school system.
• 
  Nancy

  An excellent book--a friend calls it a "handbook for activists" and I agree. Packed with information, evidence and a template for reclaiming public education. THE education book of 2013.
  
  I don't usually do this, but here's my on-line review:
  
  
  http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teac...
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  Gillian

  An excellent book, I thought it was even better than The Death and Life of the Great American School System. If you want to learn about the history of the US education system in the last 30 years, please read this book. Ravitch writes so clearly about how the school privatization and charter school movement have had such a disastrous effect on the public schools. I learned so much from this book that put my own personal experiences into context. I graduated with a music teaching degree in 2013 and saw how awful Common Core, the testing obsession, and “teacher accountability” were for schools, teachers and students. That along with the lack of jobs after budget cuts from the 2008 recession were major reasons why I left the profession and changed careers, which was an extremely difficult decision to make. Thank you so much to Diane for giving me a better understanding of the systemic issues at play in my own personal experiences and decisions, and for standing up for the public schools and the teaching profession.
• 
  Abby

  A necessary read for anyone with a stake in public education, *ahem* ... everyone. Ravitch debunks myth after myth that is spouted daily about the so-called disastrous state of public education in America. It's an eye-opening call to action for all citizens in our democracy who wish for the U.S. to remain democratic.