Diane Ravitch Quotations

This process of self-censorship is ubiquitous and that those who do it believe that they are doing the right thing. That they call it "sensitivity" and "fairness" review without realizing that they are censoring to placate pressure groups, or in anticipation of protests.

In DC, policymakers think that if we can only have high enough standards, tough enough tests, and hold people accountable, we can close the achievement gap. And it hasn't happened. Yet the new law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, is based on the same test-based and market-driven framework and ideology, except it lets the states do it.

Research does not support any part of Race to the Top

The foundations demand that public schools and teachers be held accountable for performance, but they themselves are accountable to no one. If their plans fail, no sanctions are levied against them. They are bastions of unaccountability.

You can't lead your troops if your troops do not trust you.

Most people believe that schools were good enough when they were children and that they are good enough now. But the dynamic growth of our system of education has spawned serious problems of educational quality.

Of course, all students should learn African history, as they should learn the history of other continents and major civilizations. But this history should be taught accurately and based on the best scholarship, not ideology or politics.

An attack on Public Education is an attack on Democracy

If charter schools are not more successful on average than the public schools they replace, what is accomplished by demolishing public education? What is the rationale for authorizing for-profit charters or charter management organizations with high-paid executives, since their profits and high salaries are paid by taxpayers' dollars?

I support charters, but the right kind of charters. I support charters that support kids who have the highest needs. A charter should be targeting students who are in serious trouble. It should serve students who didn't succeed in public schools when it can help them. Or, at least, charters should agree to accept similar proportions of the kids with the highest needs.

We will continue to chase rainbows unless we recognize that they are rainbows and there is no pot of gold at the end of them

We should totally ban for-profit charters. For-profit's first obligation is to its stockholders, not to its children.

Going to school is not the same as going shopping. Parents should not be burdened with locating a suitable school for their child. They should be able to take their child to the neighborhood public school as a matter of course and expect that it has well-educated teachers and a sound educational program.

There is something fundamentally antidemocratic about relinquishing control of the public education policy agenda to private foundations run by society's wealthiest people; when the wealthiest of these foundations are joined in common purpose, they represent an unusually powerful force that is beyond the reach of democratic institutions.

One of the persistent ironies of reform is the impossibility of predicting the full consequences of change ...

The greatest obstacle to those who hope to reform American education is complacency.

Testing children until they cry is a bad idea. It is an educational malpractice.

Accountability makes no sense when it undermines the larger goals of education.

What is happening to teachers now across this nation is a disgrace. The attacks on them are a blot on our nation. Teachers and students are not different interest groups. Anyone who demeans teachers demeans education and hurts children.

Without knowledge and understanding, one tends to become a passive spectator rather than an active participant in the great decisions of our time.

Those who can’t teach, pass laws about how to evaluate teachers.

When you realize that your history books and your science books and your literature books are not the result of experts sitting down and making it a wise decision, but of political pressure groups coming to the state textbook hearings, this is wrong.

American education has been littered with failed fads and foolish ideas for the past century.

When you succeed at keeping almost everyone in school, you must figure out ways to educate everyone you keep in school.

Teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions

What should we think of someone who never admits error, never entertains doubt but adheres unflinchingly to the same ideas all his life, regardless of new evidence? Doubt and skepticism are signs of rationality. When we are too certain of our opinions, we run the risk of ignoring any evidence that conflicts with our views. It is doubt that shows we are still thinking, still willing to reexamine hardened beliefs when confronted with new facts and new evidence.

Congress and state legislatures should not tell teachers how to teach, any more than they should tell surgeons how to perform operations.

The ladder was there, from the gutter to the university, and for those stalwart enough to ascend it, the schools were a boon and a path out of poverty.

Unless the schools provide our children with a vision of human possibility that enlightens and empowers them with knowledge and taste, they will simply play their role in someone else's marketing schemes. Unless they understand deeply the sources of our democracy, they will take it for granted and fail to exercise their rights and responsibilities.

Privatizing our public schools makes as much sense as privatizing the fire department or or the police department

Can teachers successfully educate children to think for themselves if teachers are not treated as professionals who think for themselves?

Testing is not a substitute for curriculum and instruction. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools.

American Education has a long history of infatuation with fads and ill-considered ideas. The current obsession with making our schools work like a business may be the worst of them, for it threatens to destroy public education. Who will Stand up to the tycoons and politicians and tell them so?

Sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.

If the contract is centered around more time for the kids, but the kids don't have to show up, it doesn't make sense.

Removing books from the library is a no-no.

These stats are meaningless in the absence of a common test and common standards.

It's an interesting development, and I would hope that the chancellor would take heed.