Diane Ravitch Defends Teachers on the Daily Show

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Diane Ravitch on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Picture courtesy ComedyCentral.com

Diane Ravitch was a guest of Jon Stewart on the October 30 Daily Show. She appeared for a ten minute interview to discuss her new book, Reign of Error: the Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. Dr. Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. She was Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Bush administration, and one of the main spokespeople for the original American education report: A Nation at Risk. She was a one-time proponent of standardized testing but has changed her stance, as she explained in a prior book.

Dr. Ravitch began the interview with Stewart by contending that after looking at the data, regardless of what we have been told for thirty years, the American education system is not broken. She claims we are currently seeing the highest test scores and the lowest dropout rates ever. She says the biggest source of low academic achievement is poverty and that the United States has the highest rate of child poverty of the advanced nations. At this, Jon Stewart quipped, “So, we are Number One!”

Dr. Ravitch called poverty the elephant in the room that we need to look at instead of ignore. She continued by saying that in half of our states, half of the children live in poverty and where ever there is poverty, there are low test scores because it affects health and causes distractions due to emotional, economic and social problems. She believes these issues can be somewhat mitigated by smaller class sizes, on-site nurses or clinics, and by including arts and P.E. in the curriculum.

Stewart asked about teacher unions and tenure twice. Dr. Ravitch replied that she is the biggest critic of status quo. She said, “Status Quo today is test, test, test, pretest, posttest. Kids are not looked at as individuals but data points.” Later when pressed again by Stewart what she would change about the current structure, Ravitch reminded him that there ate two groups at the table, management and union. She feels management can say they want to get rid of bad teachers but they should never say teachers should be judged by the test. They should be judged by peers and that there are many ways to judge teachers.

Stewart asked about charter schools. Dr. Ravitch said there is a purposeful effort to create a consumer mentality around education and that public education is not a choice but public. Later in the interview she said she knows there are many good people involved in the charter school movement and her intention is not to put down the whole movement. Her concern, she explained, was using public money for private schools.

Stewart asked her if there are any school systems, state or local, she thinks are being successful. Ravitch named Vermont explaining Vermont has no charters. It has the highest high school graduation rate in the country. The state is not focused on test scores, instead the focus on community and the well being and health of children. She was also impressed with San Diego, who instead of doing an outside search, picked the best, albeit surprised, elementary school principal in their system.

Stewart wondered if the federal government should not have standards of performance or that standards should take into consideration the art of teaching not just the science of teaching. Ravitch replied that as they know nothing about school reform, Congress should stay out of it. “The best test is the test that a teacher makes up because the teacher knows what he or she was teaching.” She explains that a teacher can use the data from that test to drive instruction, determining who needs more help. Ravitch said the standardized tests and the consultants are growing fatter by the day. Test are given in the spring, results are given in August, teachers don’t see what they got right or wrong, so the test have no value other than for the testing companies.

Jon Stewart stated when he talks to teachers; they find it dispiriting that they are given a core curriculum they are to teach to. It puts them in a box that steals the creativity, joy, and inspiration that teachers might bring to the process. He said it feels like a criminal act.

Dr. Ravitch responded by saying there are two crimes. One is against teachers who want to make a difference in the lives of kids but are given a script. This causes them to loose their professional autonomy. “Common Core is an answer to a problem we don’t have. We have a problem of poverty and the common core does nothing to address the problem.”

The second crime is against children. We are rewarding kids who can pick the right box. And what we need for the 21st Century is the kids who think outside of the box not inside the box.”[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]