Ravitch To Attend "Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action" On July 30th in Washington D.C.

Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education and outspoken opponent of the current White House education policy explains why she will march in Washington D.C. on July 30th.

Why I Am Marching On July 30

by Diane Ravitch, Education Week--Bridging Differences

Dear Deborah,

I will be marching with the Save Our Schools coalition of teachers and parents on July 30 in Washington, D.C. I know you will be, too. I hope we are joined by many thousands of concerned citizens who want to save our schools from the bad ideas and bad policies now harming them.

Our Schools Are Not Broken: The Problem is Poverty--by Stephen Krashen

President Obama should replace Arne Duncan with Stephen Krashen as Secretary of Education; Krashen's analysis is accurate and insightful. 

I've included some key highlights from Krashen's speech entitled: "Our Schools Are Not Broken: The Problem is Poverty" originally given as the commencement speech at the Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Lewis and Clark College on June 5, 2011

To hear the full speech, begin at 34:34


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Krashen Explains Why Poverty, Not Poor Teaching, Is The Real Problem:
Reduce poverty to improve education, not vice-versa.The fact that American students who are not living in poverty do very well shows that there is no crisis in teacher quality. The problem is poverty.

I Don't Want to be a Teacher Anymore----How the Education Deformers Are Driving Quality Teachers Out of the Profession

The Education Deformers are driving quality teachers out of the profession. Check out the post "I Don't Want to be a Teacher Anymore" by Thalli on Daily Kos. A 34-year veteran teacher outlines the changes public education has undergone over the past 3 decades and the demoralization that comes along with the increasing lack of teacher autonomy we are seeing under the current high-stakes testing obsessed "reform" (deform) movement:

Why the President Must Remove Arne Duncan and End High-Stakes Testing Policies in Our Public Schools: A Letter to Barack Obama--by Jenna Schlosbon

Shame on you, Barack Obama. I voted for you. I campaigned for you. I donated to you and raised money for you. When I heard you speak about the problem of educational inequality in this country at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, I felt inspired. This is an issue that has been extraordinarily important to me for some time now, and I believed that you actually intended to do something about it. But instead, you continue to support the high stakes testing agenda and business-like competition among our public schools.