Education is one of the most widely discussed areas in local and national politics. President Obama, in his 2012 State of the Union Address,focused on the increased difficulty of affording higher education. According to the Oregon Education Association, 33 of all considered bills in the recently closed 2012 Oregon State Legislative Assembly pertained to education. And last month, Oregon was one of 26 states to file a waiver temporarily exempting it from the nation’s highly contested No Child Left Behind Act.
Diane Ravitch, assistant secretary of education from 1991–93 under then-President George H.W. Bush, led the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, but has since taken a different stance. “In my view, that law has been a disaster,” Ravitch wrote in an email interview. She is an outspoken critic of No Child Left Behind, standardized testing and privatization of K-12 education. She will give a lecture on this important local and national issue at 7 p.m. on March 20 at Lincoln High School.
“Diane Ravitch is arguably one of the strongest voices for education reform in the country right now,” said Erin Brasell, program director at Illahee Institute, the sponsor of the lecture event. “Ravitch’s work gets to the heart of one of America’s largest sacred cows, education. She draws on over 40 years of experience to critique today’s most popular methods of restructuring schools,” Brasell said.
This lecture is the third in a six-part series designed by the Illahee Institute to focus on what it calls “Sacred Cows.” According to the Illahee website, the sacred cows are “systems that deliver mixed results for long periods of time, but somehow retain a powerful hold [on] our society and imaginations.” These systems are democracy, jobs, education, health care and national defense.
Ravitch explained that the current education system has lost its focus: “The central concern is that we have lost sight of the purpose of education for character, for citizenship, for knowledge, for personal development. All of these have been collapsed in the pursuit of higher test scores,” she said.
There are dangers, Ravitch said, to the current public education system. “I worry about whether public education will survive or whether it will be turned into a private activity,” she said. “In that case, the public would lose interest in supporting public schools.”
However, privatizing public education is only one danger that the American education system must face. Ravitch explained that she is concerned about “society’s indifference to the scandalous level of poverty in our society.” This indifference and the imbalance of money and power, are obstructions to creating an education system that focuses on education rather than test scores.
“The biggest barrier these days is that there is so much money and power in support of privatization, testing, accountability and teacher-bashing. And there is no national leadership to oppose all this money and power,” Ravitch said. She cited Finland’s education system as a role model and one to look to for inspiration. “It has no standardized testing and very little poverty and outstanding results. Also, free higher education,” she added.
When asked if there were any rays of hope on the horizon, Ravitch responded that “parents and teachers are beginning to wake up and get politically active in support of their schools.”
In her latest book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Ravitch details the evidence and experiences that led to her personal reversal on crucial issues related to the United States’ failing education system. She appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, National Public Radio’s Fresh Air and CNN’s Your Bottom Line.
Currently, Ravitch serves as research professor of education at New York University, and is both an education historian and policy analyst. But, Ravitch said she spends most of her time writing, traveling and lecturing. She is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, Politico.com/arena, and the blog “Bridging Differences” by Education Week.
As a co-sponsor of the lecture series, admission is free for Portland State faculty and students, and $20 for the general public.
For more information on the Illahee Institute lecture series, visit illahee.org/lectures.