Really great overview of a lot of the major education reform stories in recent American history and critique of the idea that a) testing and b) creating charter schools are the silver bullets for the US education system. Ravitch breaks down a lot of research showing that the evidence around both of those things is a lot murkier than it appears. My criticisms would be that occasionally the book is redundant and that I wanted more information on school funding and how charter schools impact the funding of existing neighborhood schools; she mentions that charter schools siphon off more motivated students or students with more informed parents from local public schools but doesn't discuss that funding also leaves the public school system.