Washington City Paper has published a lengthy article about Diane Ravitch. Deep in the piece is a sentence noting that Ravitch’s longtime partner was once a New York City public-school principal whose program was “shut down” by Joel Klein in 2005 (I’m told the program was not “shut down,” actually, but that Ravitch’s partner was summarily replaced by Klein with someone with business training), which is about the time that Ravitch began her constant antagonism (right or wrong) of Klein’s education policies and her general shift away from the “education reform” she had long championed. The reporter, Dana Goldstein, fails to make the obvious connection—that Ravitch’s purportedly intellectual shift was catalyzed by a hard personal shove—and ask her subject about it [addendum: or report that her subject refused to talk about it on the record]. This seems to me a seminal point, one far too important to have been overlooked.
I wrote Goldstein to ask about this seeming oversight. She (just this second, in fact) responded with an explanation, but asked that I keep the contents of her e-mail confidential. Will do. Let me say, though, that I’m dissatisfied by her justification. Reporters must ask the tough, relevant questions, especially the obvious ones. When they do not, when they elide necessary and important facets of the story, they and their story necessarily bleed credibility, and readers lose.
—Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
This “rationale” for Diane Ravitch’s change of heart has been discussed sotto voce for years. It’s silly on two fronts. First, the meme of Ravitch’s 180 has been wildly overstated. She has never changed her mind about the role of curriculum; and concern about the deleterious effects of testing doesn’t require a Damascus Road conversion. Two eyes open will suffice. But let’s pretend for a moment that Ravitch’s “intellectual shift” is really a complete and total gainsaying of all she has ever said and written over her entire prodigious body of work. Are we really to believe that she would repudiate her life’s work merely to settle a personal slight? Please. That would strain credulity as a plot device in a soap opera. Thus if Dana Godstein “failed to make the obvious connection” it’s because there isn’t one.
Agree or disagree with Ravitch, the most likely explanation for her change of mind is exactly what she said: she’s disappointed in the outcomes in the ideas she championed. There are plenty of data to argue about, issues of politics, pedagogy and philosophy to pore over and interpret. Gossiping about who’s upset with whom and why is pure juvenalia, best left to those who are out of their depth discussing facts.
She may still support rigorous curricula in theory, but she barely mentions that support compared to all the time she spends bashing charters and vouchers (compare all of her current rantings to this essay: http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2001/1008politics_ravitch.aspx). Worse, she never acknowledges that school choice can enable parents to opt into schools that use the rigorous curricula that she nominally supports.
Mr. Julian,
While criticizing Dana Goldstein for not asking the “tough, relevant questions,” you glibly answer your own question without even posing it.
It doesn’t seem to me that you wanted Golstein to ask “tough, relevant questions.” It seems that you wanted her to say just what you have said above. You have already reached your own conclusion.
But your assertion is pointless anyway. Every one of us is shaped by many things–study, thought, personal events, outside events, memories, conversations, confrontations. All of this, in combination, influences our views.
What matters is that we form our views as well as we can and act on them with integrity. This is what Diane Ravitch has done and continues to do. Anyone may disagree with her–but to reduce her views to a personal resentment is futile. They won’t be reduced, and you yourself will come across as petty.
After I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new feedback are added- checkbox and now each time a remark is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any approach you possibly can remove me from that service? Thanks!