mybluebookshelf's review against another edition
5.0
I can't count the number of times I've brought this book up or its contents in conversations in the last few weeks. Diane Ravitch writes a deep dive into the causes, effects, and reactions to the privatization, standardization, and accountability movement in US public schools. If you are an educator, you need to read this book now. Even if you are not directly connected to education I highly recommend this book as an example of how private billionaires have huge impacts on local politics that affect real people's lives.
andersonh92's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed enlightening myself on the history and issues in education. However, the tone and themes of this entire book are nagging, whiny, and so redundant that I found myself giving up on this boon halfway through. There were absolutely no practical solutions for change aside from a few minuscule examples included of The Resistance to be The Disrupters of education. In my opinion, the work is abysmal, and the tone is dismal with jo true outlook of hope and change. It seems like there is no hope for public education because we are up against the powerful elite of the world. It wasn't until the very last chapter that Ravitch even offers any practical solutions of how public Resistance members can eventually defeat the private Disrupters of education.
ncalv05's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
carolynf's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a fabulous take down of the "disrupters" who want to privatize education. It is a history book more than a call to arms. Diane Ravitch tells the history of both sides - those who want an education system that uses intrinsic motivation for holistic self-improvement and citizenship preparation, and those who want a school system that uses cheap untrained labor and a carrot and stick approach to force students to meet benchmarks that were not developed by anyone with the best interest of students at heart. There is a fantastic outing of people and organizations who support privatization, including all those rich non-educator philanthropists who throw money at charter schools and get tax breaks for it.
I will confess that I skimmed quite a bit of this book, already knowing quite a bit about this movement. What was most encouraging was Ravitch's conclusion that the tide has turned on the privatization movement. But who is to say what will take its place? I would love for it to be equitably funded public schools with decent pay for long-term teachers, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
I will confess that I skimmed quite a bit of this book, already knowing quite a bit about this movement. What was most encouraging was Ravitch's conclusion that the tide has turned on the privatization movement. But who is to say what will take its place? I would love for it to be equitably funded public schools with decent pay for long-term teachers, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
djfreshjams's review against another edition
2.0
Man, I don't know.
I do agree with all the main points of this book. The proliferation of charter schools is bad. Defunding public schools is bad. Common Core standards and yearly high-stakes testing are bad. Not paying teachers a livable wage is bad.
But I found the book's language to be highly simplistic and the style to be irritating (like a 300-page manifesto). There are so many lists that seem to go on for pages, and I don't really need to know exactly how many charter schools closed and open in 20 different states in order to understand the author's point. I also found the book to be highly repetitive, rehashing the same points and in some cases the same factoids over and over in different chapters.
This feels like one that would have been better presented as a long op-ed or blog post than a book.
I do agree with all the main points of this book. The proliferation of charter schools is bad. Defunding public schools is bad. Common Core standards and yearly high-stakes testing are bad. Not paying teachers a livable wage is bad.
But I found the book's language to be highly simplistic and the style to be irritating (like a 300-page manifesto). There are so many lists that seem to go on for pages, and I don't really need to know exactly how many charter schools closed and open in 20 different states in order to understand the author's point. I also found the book to be highly repetitive, rehashing the same points and in some cases the same factoids over and over in different chapters.
This feels like one that would have been better presented as a long op-ed or blog post than a book.
prof_shoff's review against another edition
3.0
If you aren’t angry about the dismantling of US public schools, you will be after reading Ravitch’s presentation of privatization and corporate money in education. While the book could do with a better editor (I’m available, Diane!), the information is worth the organizational issues.
gray_05_sea's review against another edition
1.0
I agree with the author but this was more messaging that audience. She is a zealot who wrote a polemic and the point would have been better served with evidence, studies and stories than with list of billionaires.0
byrningup's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. This book is a scathing takedown of all of the politicians and billionaires that have tried to standardize and privatize public education in the past 20 years. It made me viscerally angry, and I frequently wanted to punch people in the face. However, Ravitch passionately tells the stories of the grassroots organizers out there fighting to stop this onslaught. There's not a lot of room for the morally gray in this book- (she spends two chapters specifically devoted to calling out the names of anyone who has ever funded or voted against public schools and everyone fighting to preserve it). But I think in this case, it works. She is biased, yes, but only because she has fought so hard and invested so much. If she had attempted to come at this from a journalistic perspective, this book would not have been as impactful.
ryalcoll28's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really interesting history of educational policy from the 1983 Nation at Risk Report to the current RedforEd movement. While I felt like Ravitch is a little more repetitive here than she is in her other books, she does a great job tracing the history of charter schools and the empty promises of NCLB, The Common Core, and Race to the Top. Overall, I highly recommend this to anyone with a stake in public education, which, incidentally, is everyone!
omnibozo22's review against another edition
4.0
I'm glad to see that Ravitch saw the light, after being one of the strongest proponents of school privatization under Bush. It is still difficult for me to trust her. Her enlightenment comes late. The capitalist shits have already captured the Supreme Court, the Congress and the Presidency. They will continue to view the world through dollar signs, because they don't yet have all the money. The fake ed reform movements were, and are, solely about money, not education.
Ravitch lists, for the first 20% of the book, the many people and anti-democratic organizations pushing the voucher and charter school movement. They are all anti-democratic, anti-equality, racist organizations. Betsy DeVos is right up there with the Bill Gates and the Waltons billionaires with no education experience and no concern for real students. Ravitch drops back into list mode requently in the rest of the book.
Charter schools, at best, do no better than public schools at educating students. That's true even though they hand pick their students, rejecting students that public schools have always served: students with disabilities, English language learners, students with behavioral problems, students from poor homes. Charter school cants about improving education for those populations are all lies.
Read this, and her earlier book, Reign of Error, to see how she documents the failure of those schools and the cynical bastards behind them. Betsy DeVos, with her 'deer in the headlights' vacuous smile and zero education knowledge, should join DumptyTrumpty in jail.
Ravitch lists, for the first 20% of the book, the many people and anti-democratic organizations pushing the voucher and charter school movement. They are all anti-democratic, anti-equality, racist organizations. Betsy DeVos is right up there with the Bill Gates and the Waltons billionaires with no education experience and no concern for real students. Ravitch drops back into list mode requently in the rest of the book.
Charter schools, at best, do no better than public schools at educating students. That's true even though they hand pick their students, rejecting students that public schools have always served: students with disabilities, English language learners, students with behavioral problems, students from poor homes. Charter school cants about improving education for those populations are all lies.
Read this, and her earlier book, Reign of Error, to see how she documents the failure of those schools and the cynical bastards behind them. Betsy DeVos, with her 'deer in the headlights' vacuous smile and zero education knowledge, should join DumptyTrumpty in jail.