In the text, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, author Diane Ravitch explores her ideological shift on school reform and the empirical evidence that caused this shift. Once a proponent and contributor of testing, accountability, choice, and market reforms, Ravitch’s support began to diminish as she realized that these current reforms were not viable options. She came to realize that the new school reforms focused entirely on structural and managerial adjustments and that no focus was given to actual learning.
The implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act applied a market approach to school reform as a way of improving the school system. This new law promised an era of high standards, testing, and accountability in
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93). Therefore, accountability became the central focus to improve education in America. Schools and teachers would now be judged or held accountable by their performance, and schools that failed to meet certain standards would be closed; this was a basic principle in the business sector (Ravitch, 2011, p. 8). Furthermore, NCLB mandated that every school must be 100 percent proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014; consequently schools that failed to perform would suffer punitive consequences. However, by 2007, the evidence was becoming clear that the mandates of the new law were not increasing student achievement in learning. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal testing program reported that only one-third of students met the federal standard for proficiency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 103). Ravitch argued that 100 percent proficiency in reading and mathematics was unattainable by the projected year. Not only did the law allow for each …show more content…
She realized that choice and accountability were not the answer, but that curriculum and instruction were more viable solutions to America’s educational dilemma. Ravitch suggests that to abandon public schools is to abandon the institution that supports our concepts of democracy and citizenship and to the promise of American life (Ravitch, 2011, p. 12-14). The idea of school choice is rooted in Milton Friedman’s essay concerning the government’s role in education. Friedman asserted that society should support and contribute to the maximum freedom of the individual or the family. He maintained that the government should provide vouchers to help support parents financially on their children’s education, which parents could use at the school of their choosing; so long as the school met set standards. Therefore, this creation of choice would stimulate competition, which Friedman believed would increase the development and improvement of nonpublic schools, as well as, create a variety of school options (Ravitch, 2011, p. 115). As a result of the choice movement, the public received three versions of school choice: voucher schools, private schools, and charter schools. Each of these schools receives public funding, but do not operate as traditional public schools, and are not managed by a government agency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 121). Charter schools became the most popular choice of this new
Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Raymond, Margaret E. (2014, February 1). To no avail: A critical look at the charter school debate. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol.95 (5) pp.8-12. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6aa05956-5bfe-43eb-9eec-b90be0fefa60%40sessionmgr113&vid=9&hid=125
Only now is evidence emerging testifying to the fact that much of the criticism leveled at public schools is exaggerated and misplaced. It is easy to forget that schools reflect what is happening in society, not cause it. Schools of today have recently shown that they are performing better than ever. Unfortunately, the traditional challenges confronting schools have increased dramatically and broadly as the world and students have changed. Now schools are facing drastic change -- necessary change that must take place quickly so students are able to cope in a dramatically changing world of the future. All of the criticism creates fear in teachers and administrators rather than a desire to embrace change.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is currently the educational policy in the United States. Prior to NCLB the educational policies in effect were “A Nation at Risk, in 1987 America 2000, and a few years later with Goals 2000” (Eisner, 2001, p.21). No Child Left Behind is a test based accountability system used in schools to measure their performance holding the districts, administrators and teachers liable and accountable for the outcomes. Supovitz (2009) States that No Child Left Behind was a major reform initiative intended to bring about widespread improvements in student performance and reduce inequities between ethnic groups and other traditionally under-served populations like economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial
At a time of wide public concern about the state of education, the legislation sets in place requirements that reach into virtually every public school in America. The law emphasizes accountability, teacher quality, parent choice, improved teaching methods, and flexibility. (Correa) Strict requirements and deadlines have been set for states to expand the scope and frequency of student testing, revamp their accountability system and guarantee that every classroom is staffed by a ?highly qualified? teacher in his or her own subject area. (I ed) The plan also mandates annual student testing in reading and math by 2005, and requires all school districts to allow students in consistently low-performing schools to transfer to higher performing schools, at the districts expense. (Hull) From year to year, states are required to improve the quality of their schools. No Child Left Behind has expanded the federal ...
One of the most hotly debated issues in the United States today is the controversial topic of education reform. Since public schools are funded almost entirely by local property taxes and money at the state level, many parents feel that they deserve a greater say in what their children learn in school. However, sometimes the opinions of parents contradict the policies at the federal level, thus causing conflict. Dissatisfaction with the public school system in their districts has led many Americas to seek other options for their children’s educations. In 1992, the first charter school opened in Minnesota, giving parents the option to send their kids to a free public school of their choice (“Charter Schools”).
Cookson Jr., Peter W. School Choice: The Struggle for the Soul of American Education. New
Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. New York: Basic, 2010. Print
The idea of school choice is not a new one. Since the late 1980s school choice has become a popular strategy for “reforming American education and equalizing educational opportunities” (Hadderman, 2002). School choice is a broad term that is used to describe charter schools, home-schooling, for-profit companies, and vouchers. Parents who wish to select schools for their children do so for academic, religious, or moral reasons, and usually select schools that reflect their own beliefs.
In Diane Ravitch’s essay, “The Essentials of a Good Education,” she explains how schools in 2008 made budget cuts on a variety of if important subjects in school, such as history and science, in order to spend more time on tested subjects like mathematics and reading. Ravitch believes that public schools are forsaking the importance of life and social skills that every student needs. A child’s knowledge should not be rank, rated, or labeled, according to Ravitch, because “it does not measure their character, spirit, heart, soul, or potential.” Ravitch blames reform programs such as “No Child Left Behind,” which requires states to test children’s basic skills, on the cuts made in important subjects, which she believes are key components of education. She also said that educated parents would not want their children going to a school
Today, charter schools and vouchers are still somewhat under debate. They are being argued in places from the local school board meetings to state supreme courts. Both are considered “school of choice” initiatives which allow parents to choose their child’s educational path outside the traditional public school system. The school voucher is a program which provides a certificate which is used to pay for education at the school of choice outside the public school system. Charter schools have been freed from rules, regulations, and statues with the responsibility of producing assured results that are set forth in the school’s charter. These (charter) schools are publicly funded. Choice is a God given
Imagine again the one-size-fits-all clothes store, how can they stay in business if another store offered all kinds of sizes and styles? Simple, they couldn’t, in the face of competition that provide a better choice for consumers. The traditional public school system of the past had no competition. There was no incentive to improve the quality of education they provided since there was nothing to measure it against. The school choice movement for the first time introduced an alternative to poorly performing public schools. Charter schools make a commitment or charter, to achieve a measurable level of educational performance in a defined period of
“Vouchers lead us away from the basic American tradition of a free, quality public education for every student and undermine the kind of comprehensive, systemic school reform that is working […]” (Tirozzi, 1997). This quote taken from Gerald Tirozzi, the assistant U.S. secretary of education for elementary and secondary education, sums up the issue of vouchers. Milton Friedman, a free-market theorist, introduced vouchers, which funnel public funds to private schools, more than forty years ago (Resnick, 1998).
In this paper, I will discuss standardized tests after the No Child Left Behind Act and whether or not they are effective in achieving the goals for which they were implemented. Standardized tests have been around a long time, but their use greatly increased after the NCLB Act required annual testing across the country. I will research the initial goals of these tests as well as statistics that show whether or not these goals have been achieved. Many scholars believe that standardized tests do not offer a fair or accurate measure of students or teachers’ true abilities. They argue that these tests do more harm than good in relation to the extreme pressure they place on both the students and schools as a whole. Another argument against standardized
Many people in today’s society believe it’s wise to send their children to private schools. In making the decision on whether to put children in public or private schools, they look to four main factors: curriculum, class size, the graduation rate, and cost. When people have to pay for something, their first thought is, “Will I be getting what I’m paying for?” With a private school education, the amount you have to pay is usually well worth it. Public schools offer diversity. Here students can find people who are just like them and can associate better. Wherever you live, you have to send your child to the closest school. There’s no choice on what public school you can send your child to, whereas for private schools you can pick to send your child there. It’s not an easy choice for parents to decide, but many factors point toward a guarantee that a good education would be achieved, which is most important.