Is Education on the Wrong Track? Ravitch's Rebuttal

Here's Ravitch's rebuttal to Andy Rotherham's critique of her book (which I covered earlier; see: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/03/is-education-on-wrong-track.html):
We need to improve our education system—not tinker with models that affect tiny numbers of kids and can't be replicated.

You complain that, in my new book and in this symposium, I fail to provide the way forward or at least a few silver bullets. You say that I do not show the way forward. So let me give it a try.

First, the punitive approach embedded in NCLB, in my judgment, has poisoned the atmosphere. Teachers feel fearful, beleaguered, and disrespected. A few months ago, a national survey found that 40 percent of U.S. teachers were "disheartened." I have heard from many teachers (and posted some of their e-mails, often anonymously at their request, on my website at www.dianeravitch.com). They are indeed discouraged because of the blame game that makes teachers the culprits for poor performance.

Second, I am sorry to say that the Obama administration continues to play the blame game and, if anything, has racheted up the rhetoric that accuses teachers of being the root of all educational failure. NCLB gifted us with the utopian goal that all children should be proficient, so, if they are not, someone must be held "accountable." Accountable now means "someone must be punished."

---------------------
Is Education on the Wrong Track?
A TNR Symposium.
Diane Ravitch
March 21, 2010 | 5:39 pm
www.tnr.com/article/education-the-wrong-track-5
From: Diane Ravitch
To: Andrew Rotherham
Subject: We need to improve our education system—not tinker with models that affect tiny numbers of kids and can't be replicated.