Putting Education Reform to the Test

In her Seattle Times column, Lynne K. Varner explores the pros and cons of education reform -- including public school privatization and standardized testing -- as she prepares for a visit by education historian Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

Education historian Diane Ravitch has amassed a devoted following, and impressive book sales, with searing polemics about billionaires privatizing public schools and students tortured by standardized tests.

Ravitch is visiting Seattle, bringing a long lens on American public education, both as a former assistant education secretary under President George H.W. Bush and early leader of the education-reform movement and now as a speaker on the crusade to expose education reform efforts as a sham.

Read "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education." You'll be home schooling by Monday. 

The problem is that when Ravitch is performing for the anti-reform crowd, she lobs verbal howitzers that, upon reflection, lack nuance.

Read Lynne K. Varner's entire column at the Seattle Times.

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