The popular narrative around public schools is that they’re failing and that teachers and administrators are to blame. Reformers argue for charter schools. They call for evaluating teachers based on the test scores of their students. They urge abolition of policies that reward seniority among teachers.
Diane Ravitch thinks they’re wrong. She thinks what passes for reform is a hoax. Ravitch is a historian of education and a research professor at New York University. She was an Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Bush administration. Her latest book is "Reign of Error: The Hoax Of The Privatization Movement And The Danger To American Schools."