Reviews & Praise
Coverage of the book at The Washington Post, The LA Times, and The Washington Monthly
“This is the one book to read if you want to understand the state of our public schools now. Ravitch will be a splendid guide for what happens the next 10 years, at least.”—Jay Mathews, WashingtonPost.com
“Ravitch’s critique is an essential one – passionate, well considered and completely logical.”—Time Magazine
“Diane Ravitch, perhaps America’s most influential scholar on education, has reversed her stance on issues such as standardized testing, school choice and the No Child Left Behind Act. It’s the equivalent of Neal Boortz renouncing the FairTax or Ted Nugent embracing a tofu and berries diet.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“The book that follows is, if not a mea culpa, perhaps something more valuable – a fiercely argued manifesto against fads in education reform and for public schools, and the teachers and students who inhabit them.” —Boston Globe
“Ravitch’s book comes at a key time in the education debate. Business-style school reforms, with standardized-test results as their lifeblood, are soaring in popularity. Even as reams of new data suggest they don’t work or are at best a mixed bag.”—The Seattle Times
“It is precisely because of her associations with those more ‘conservative’ on educational matters that this book by Diane Ravitch carries the impact that it does. It may infuriate some of her former colleagues, because she is thorough, she is blunt. Were I to offer a parallel, perhaps it would be the conversion of David Brock from a henchman for the political right to one of its more visible opponents. Except Brock was never considered a major player, and in educational circles Ravitch has been a major figure for several decades.”—DailyKos
"Marshaling a mountain of facts that she reported over years, Ravitch tells through riveting stories and sharp analysis why she no longer believes that public schools should be operated like businesses." —Valerie Strauss, Washington Post.com
"Ravitch, former assistant secretary of education with over 40 years of experience in educational policy, provides an important and highly readable examination of the educational system, how it fails to prepare students for life after graduation, and how we can put it back on track. Ravitch was once a passionate advocate for the conservative policies of testing and accountability, school choice, privatization, and business-style management, all of which she here powerfully shows leave students trained to take tests but not prepared to participate in the 21st-century economy. Changes she suggests include curricula that emphasize what students need to learn over test scores, having professional educators rather than politicians, business leaders, and philanthropists run the system, and using charter schools to help students most in need instead of allowing them to siphon off the best students from public schools. VERDICT: Anyone interested in education should definitely read this accessible, riveting book."—Library Journal (starred review)
“Diane Ravitch is the rarest of scholars—one who reports her findings and conclusions,even when they go against conventional wisdom and even when they counter her earlier, publicly espoused positions. A ‘must’ read for all who truly care about American education.”—Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
“Diane Ravitch is one of the most important public intellectuals of our time. In this powerful and deftly written book, she takes on the big issues of American education today, fearlessly articulating both the central importance of strong public education and the central elements for strengthening our schools. Anyonewho cares about public education should read this book.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommon Professor of Education, Stanford University, and Founding Executive Director, National Commission for Teaching & America's Future
“No citizen can afford to ignore this brave book by our premier historian of education. Diane Ravitch shines a bright, corrective light on the exaggerated claims of school reformers on both the left and the right, and offers an utterly convincing case for abandoning quick fixes in favor of nurturing the minds and hearts of our students from the earliest years with enabling knowledge and values.” —E. D. Hirsch, Jr., author of Cultural Literacy, The Schools We Need, and The Making of Americans