Word: ravitch
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Some educators bristle at bringing such touchy-feely topics into an already overcrowded curriculum. "I know of no evidence that marriage courses lead to better marriages," says Brookings Institution senior fellow Diane Ravitch. "But I do know of a great deal of evidence that schools are doing a poor job teaching math, science, history, literature and foreign languages." Then there's the question of whether kids who watch Dawson's Creek and get free condoms at school are thinking in the long term. Says University of Washington marriage expert John Gottman: "They should be learning about dating...
...some took strange pride recently in blocking Bill Clinton's multibillion-dollar public-school construction plan. They have remained wedded to conservative shibboleths like education savings accounts and private-school vouchers, which have little appeal to the 89% of Americans who send their children to public schools. Says Ravitch: "Bush is so far ahead of the national party that the people in Washington can't even see how behind they...
...then he drove it further. "Most school systems tend to have no standards and tons of regulations," says Ravitch. "Bush reversed the paradigm, and backed higher standards and fewer regulations, leaving districts free to teach how they want as long as they get results." He reduced the regulatory authority of the Texas education agency but increased accountability by beefing up and enforcing state standards. Most important, he started tracking results by race and ethnicity, rewarding schools that boost performance--especially minority performance. He also took on state teachers' colleges, telling them that 70% of graduates in each minority group must...
...full of "mushy" liberal pedagogy, then rejecting the arguments of the religious right that the revised standards weren't tough enough. "I met with him in June 1997, when he was under heavy criticism from the right for not backing what they regarded as tougher, more prescriptive standards," says Ravitch. "He responded very forcefully, and made it clear that he was not going to be bullied. This is not a soft...
Administration officials chalk up the opposition to overheated speculation on all sides, and they're partly right. But the White House has made miscues of its own. Early supporters of the national-test plan, like Finn and Brookings Institution scholar Diane Ravitch, have deserted the President because the tests were developed through the politically appointed Department of Education rather than by a nonpartisan body like the independent National Assessment Governing Board. "It's wrong to have a new national test every time a new President is elected," Ravitch says. Last month Education Secretary Richard Riley agreed to surrender control...