Critic of public education trends to speak at UF Jan. 22

January 16, 2014

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A critic of popular ideas for improving public education will speak at the University of Florida Jan. 22.

Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University, draws on more than 40 years of research and experience.  Her lecture is based on her most recent book, “Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.”  She argues that the crisis in American education is not a crisis of academic achievement, but of the destruction of public schools across the country.

She will offer critiques of ideas for restructuring schools such as privatization, standardized testing, punitive accountability and the multiplication of charter schools, and offer a clear prescription for improving the nation’s public schools.

Her lecture, which starts at 7 p.m. in University Auditorium, is presented by the UF Honors Program, in collaboration with the College of Education and the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. It’s free and open to the public.  A book signing follows.

Ravitch has published more than 500 articles and reviews for scholarly and popular publications on the subject.  As assistant secretary of education from 1991 to 1993 she led the federal effort to promote the creation of voluntary state and national academic standards.  As a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, she oversaw the National Assessment of Education Progress, the federal testing program.  She serves on the board of the Core Knowledge Foundation, Common Core, the Albert Shanker Institute of the American Federation of Teachers, and Common Good.

A native of Houston, Ravitch is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a doctorate in history from Columbia University.