Diane Ravitch, education historianPhoto: Jack Miller
Do you have a question for Diane Ravitch? If you care about the future of public education or teacher unions, you probably should. In addition to being a prolific education historian, Ravitch is most well-known as a conservative who supports teacher unions, and opposes charters and No Child Left Behind. What makes her perspectives especially fascinating, no matter where you stand on these issues, is that less than seven years ago she was on the opposite side of the fight. Ravitch used to serve in George H.W. Bush’s administration championing No Child Left Behind accountability measures, charters, and teacher merit pay among other controversial reforms before she changed her mind, somewhere around 2004.
I am thrilled to interview Ravitch for Mother Jones Monday, and hope you’ll share your questions for her in the comment section below this blog post. Please post them by Monday, Feb. 28, 6am PST. To kick it off, here are some questions in my notebook:
What does your education reform agenda look like?
You believe that the testing and standards in NCLB have been extremely damaging to schools. What other external measures can we use to make sure that students across the country are proficient in the basic subjects?
What will happen, if teachers in Wisconsin lose their collective bargaining rights?
