A lucid analysis of the pitfalls of recent educational reform movements. Ravitch, a former member of the Bush administration demonstrates the follies in "choice" and market driven systems which assume that consumer behavior applies to education. Ravitch points out the core flaws in this theory: student "consumers" do not necessarily know how to make the best educational choices, and schools are evaluated on their ability to sell a "product" to many students who are actively hostile to it. Despite some irksome name-dropping and a tendency to repeat the same statements 3 times in a row, this is a valuable read. Media accounts of "miracle" charter schools and aggressive turnarouds often fail to do the necessary follow-up; Ravitch points out that many of these trumpeted interventions have resulted in negligible long term gains, especially for the poor and minority students who need help most.


Hmmm...some of the educational gimmickry she describes is in use at my daughter's school: "text to self connections" indeed!