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1. The problem is not having choices but that the taxpayer-funded resources are going into the choice alternatives instead of into improving all schools.

2. Students should be met where they are - if they are reading at a 4th-grade level, then teach them to read well there first (regardless of what grade they are in) instead of punishing them for not keeping up.

3. At best, teachers have students only 6 hrs/day. Stop expecting they can overcome the apathy, disregard for learning, and all the other societal ills underresourced students face in the other 18 hours.

4. Put education back in the hands of people who have education experience. If we won't allow a judge who hasn't been to law school, why do we allow a superintendent who's never been in a classroom.

I wound up eating my lunch in my car because I had to listen to the Diane Ravitch interview. She is one of the few people in the field of education who's really got it right. President Obama should replace his basketball buddy Duncan with Diane Ravitch.

I was shouting Amen every other sentence during this guest. Common Sense thru and thru. Fairness and Equality in this country dictate schools should be funded alike; textbooks should be nationalized to save cost; and teachers should be paid on merit. My daughter in LI goes on luxury field trips in tour buses while her counterparts in Baltimore City are lucky to get thru a day with a teacher present and without bleeding. The public schools need to be the focus rather than all these other distractions for people of priviledge. It is going to hurt all of us in the end if education isn't funded, public, accessible, safe, EQUAL, and rich in all subjects. Thank you Ms. Ravitch. I will be buying your book.

[[Amy from Manhattan I thought the problem w/voucher proposals was that the amounts of the vouchers weren't enough to let poor families afford any private schools other than religious ones. May. 25 2010 12:52 PM]]

poor people should have factored that into their thinking about how many kids to have.

Ravitch spent the entire segment railing against "choice" and then closed out by announcing her choice to support WNYC.

It's her money and she can do whatever she likes with it, just like a parent who wants to pay for private schooling.

How should school systems evaluate teachers and what should they do when they identify a teacher who is well meaning but not up to the job?

I thought the problem w/voucher proposals was that the amounts of the vouchers weren't enough to let poor families afford any private schools other than religious ones.

What about a distinction between nonprofit and for-profit charter schools?

I disagree. Where as NCLB only assessed, RTTT actually attacks the pedagogy. Assessment without instruction will not affect change.

I would never send a kid of mine to "gen pop" at a public school. Why would anyone send a kid to a school with a graduation rate below 50%

If there is a local detention facility, sorry, failing school and a nearby charter school that works, the choice is clear.

Your guest sounds like a sourpuss.

What does Ms. Ravitch think of approaches like that of the Harlem Children's Zone? (Was she the one who wrote that critique of it a few months ago?)

Please challenge your guest! How on earth did she support No Child Left behind under GW Bush given her current opinions? How does she feel about the results that previous support engendered? Does she feel any responsibility?

I am a teacher in Stamford,CT and I share the same concerns as many mentioned in the show and we do need creative solutions to our huge education problem but something that I find most challenging is the differing value to education in different groups-many times my parent group does not understand the need to support the development of their child in many facets of education.

Arne Duncan closed schools in neighborhoods where (white) yuppies were moving in. The goal, people say, was to remove the black and latino kids and make space for upper middle class white families.

The new school chief, Ron Huberman, is a flunky of the mayor and is not an education professional.

Huberman's jobs have been:
Chicago Police Department
Office of Emergency Management and Communications
Mayor Richard M. Daley's Chief of Staff
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Public Schools

Who are the education leaders who are supporting policies that work and are supported by evidence?

I did my master's at Columbia to become a science teacher, and just hated how teachers must teach to a test, so I never went beyond the student teaching level. Furthermore, there is now no guarantee that the stability of the profession is going to be there in the future given all the calls to do away with tenure. I could be an awesome teacher. But I want a real, respected career.

Ms. Ravitch has the luxury of changing her mind a decade later. Those children have grown and lost opportunities. When my children were early school age, most of the children in our NJ suburban neighborhood were having trouble reading and getting special help. I believed that was due to the many experts who decided phonics were no longer important. I chose to put my children in a local parochial school which still taught phonics. My children are now sucessful HS students. The students now going through the school system can not wait for experts to agree or change their minds. Vouchers are the immediate answer for current students. Then the experts can argue.

There is a paradox here. The main reason we chose a charter school for our child, a choice deplored by your guest, was because we perceived it as the only way to escape the destructive test-driven curriculum driven by NCLB.

A friend of mine that's a public school teacher says that the problem is the kid's home life. The kids she has that perform poorly don't have the support, structure, etc at home to get thm motivated. In her opinion all the testing and curriculum won't help these kids.

Whenever discussions of this sort are had there seems never to be any mention of the role of parents/caregivers in the educating of a child, as well as the anti-intellectualism that seems more and more to be a hallmark of American society. What is Ms. Ravitch's opinion of the place of caregivers/parents in the education of children, and the wider society's apparent disdain for an educated populace?

Leonard, your last comment before the pledge break is very telling. NCLB has not failed "in her estimation". It has failed according to the results of her and others' research. It is a proven fact and not an opinion.

The idea that everything that is related to society or government policy is a matter of opinion is the reason that such idiocy as NCLB persists...jst like the "birthers" idea that Obama is not a US citizen or that global warming is a "hoax" perpetrated by left wing scientists who want to rule the world.

No one has taken into account how "dumbed-down" the 4th grade tests are at this point. The purported gains are truly misleading.

The more I hear about the state of public education, the more convinced I am that my husband and I are doing the right thing in sacrificing virtually any luxury we have to in order to keep my son in Catholic school.

Choice? How is "choice" undermining American education?

Such evidence exists, and I know for myself, testing does not inspire students to think, nor help validate their motivation and trust in their own experience. The arts are a precious tool to help not only with cognitive and intellectual development, but also affective, intuitive and creative abilities as well. Tests so often made me think much more about the grade, than that which I was learning. I don't understand Obama on this!

NCLB has been long recognized as a failure, and you outline several reasons why it cannot succeed.

What do you suggest, then?

I would like to see an end to seniority-based tenure for teachers and principals. What is your guest's opinion on this subject?