Q&A with Diane Ravitch
In total, 100% contrast to Gov. Christie, is union apologist/lackey Diane Ravitch. This is such a hoot – she thinks that "Bill Gates is now running the nation's education system" and that if she were in charge of his foundation, "everything would change":
Who would I like to have a 30-minute sit down with, or maybe a 60-minute sit down? Bill Gates. Bill Gates is now running the nation's education system. Maybe Eli Broad, but I've talked to Eli Broad, and he's unapproachable. I'd like to have an hour with Bill Gates. If he took his vast fortune and used it wisely, everything would change.
Oh please! Your assertion might not be such a knee-slapper if you spent even 1/10th as much time saying what, exactly, you would do to fix schools rather than crapping all over everyone who is actually trying to make a difference on the ground.
Lest you think I exaggerate, the interview below is typical: in 1,551 words (I used word count), she spends a mere 209 (13.5%) saying what she would do differently:
Good schools
I'd say that for a school to be good, it must have a full and balanced curriculum. It must have a full program in the arts. . . . I half-jokingly say that the one federal mandate I'd like to see would be for every child to have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. The reason I say this is because I think that's the perfect antidote to almost everything. When you play a musical instrument, you have to learn the value of practice, practice, practice. Nobody else can do it for you. You can't download it from the Internet. You learn self-discipline. You have to do it alone. You have to do it in groups.
What we need
What we need is the equivalent of a Marshall Plan for education, and I don't mean by that spend $200 billion more, although we probably will.
We should have a long-term plan in which we improve the quality of the teaching force, have higher educational expectations for those who come into teaching. We should begin to think about an improved profession, better assessments and insisting on this vision of education in which kinds get a broad, rich and coherent curriculum, rather than basic skills only.
So she wants a "full and balanced curriculum", "every child to have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument", and "a long-term plan in which we improve the quality of the teaching force". These are of course precisely the things that high-performing charter schools do – but Ravitch craps on them nevertheless.
It's not that what she's saying is wrong – it's that they're trite banalities. I'm in favor of these things – and also in favor of motherhood and apple pie. How, exactly, does Ravitch plan to introduce a full and balanced curriculum? Is she in favor of extending the school day to accommodate an extra period for the arts or learning an instrument (like KIPP and similar schools), or does she want to cut back on time children are spending learning math or reading? And how does Ravitch plan to improve the quality of the teaching force, especially when she dismisses TFA, the single biggest pipeline of high-caliber people into the profession, as irrelevant? The quickest way to improve average teacher quality would be do identify and remove the bottom 5% of teachers – yet she opposes this. Should ed schools raise their admissions standards (most are non-competitive)? Should they change their useless curriculum or should alternative certification entities be allowed? Should there be differential pay for hard-to-fill areas like math or science – or the toughest schools? Should the best teachers – however she wants to define them – be paid more? On all of these questions, Ravitch is silent or offers nothing more than banal platitudes.
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Q&A with Diane Ravitch, author, New York University professor Posted By Catalyst Staff On Friday, May 28, 2010
In Q&A
posted by Whitney Tilson at 9:25 PM
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