In her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, Ravitch blasts No Child Left Behind, which she says promotes "a cramped, mechanistic, profoundly anti-intellectual definition of education" — as well as virtually every other recent reform effort that has sought to inject more free-market competition and accountability into education. She finds much to dislike: charter schools, high-stakes tests, corporate-style school management teams and the rising influence of foundation-funded reforms.

Over several decades, Ravitch says, American schools have essentially lost their way, forgetting to focus on giving students a solid curriculum and strong teachers. Instead, she says, we've bumbled through a series of crises that have left us with "vague and meaningless standards," an odd, antagonistic public-private competition and an "obsession" with test scores.

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1. BlueOntario wrote: “If the goal of schooling is to produce educated people, we’ve lost sight of that goal,” she says in an interview. I’ve been under the impression that the original goal was to create a prepared workforce, although what they were to be prepared to do has been murky. March 10, 11:11 pm | [comment link]

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© 2012 Kendall S. Harmon. All rights reserved.

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