In Need of a Renaissance - Real Reform Will Renew, Not Abandon, Our Neighborhood Schools

Oct 15, 2026

Educational historian Diane Ravitch reflects on her evolving perspective on U.S. school reform, describing a personal turning point after reviewing decades of her own writings and witnessing how testing, accountability, and school choice played out in practice. She argues that reform promises have not translated into sustained improvements and that curriculum and instruction are the real drivers of learning. She calls for a strong, coherent explicit curriculum grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, supported by engaging projects and civic preparation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Background and personal transformation

Reexamining evidence and reform promises

Critique of testing, accountability, and choice

Concerns about low-performing schools and student removal

Curriculum and instruction as the core solution

Building a coherent liberal-arts-based curriculum

Preparing students for democratic citizenship

InNeedofa Renaissance Real Reform Will Renew, Not Abandon, Our Neighborhood Schools By Diane Ravitch I n the fall of 2007, I reluctantly decided to have my office repainted. It was inconvenient. I work at home, on the top floor of a 19th-century brownstone in Brooklyn. Not only did I have to stop working for three weeks, but I had the addi- Diane Ravitch, a historian of education, is a research professor of education at New York University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of dozens of articles and books. Previously, she served as the assistant secretary of education under President George H. W. Bush and was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board. This article is adapted with permission from: The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch (Basic Books, 2010). tional burden of packing up and removing everything in my office. I had to relocate 50 boxes of books and files to other rooms in the house until the painting job was complete. After the patching, plastering, and painting was done, I began unpacking 20 years of papers and books, discarding those I no longer wanted, and placing articles into scrapbooks. I found that the chore of reorganizing the artifacts of my professional life was pleasantly ruminative. Ithad a tonic effect, because it allowed me to reflect on the changes in my views over the years. At the verytime that I was packing up my books and belongings, I was going through an intellectual crisis. I was aware that I had undergone a wrenching transformation in my perspective on school reform. Where once I had been hopeful, even enthusiastic, about the potential benefits of testing, accountability, choice, and 10 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2010 markets, I now found myself experiencing profound doubts about white. Testing would shine a spotlight on low-performing schools, these same ideas. I was trying to sort through the evidence about and choice would create opportunities for poor kids to leave for what was working and what was not. I was trying to understand better schools. All of this seemed to make sense, but there was why I was increasingly skeptical about these reforms. Why did I little empirical evidence, just promise and hope. I wanted to share now doubt ideas I once had advocated? the promise and the hope. I wanted to believe that choice and The short answer is that my views changed as I saw how these accountability would produce great results. But over time, I was ideas were working out in reality. When someone chastised John persuaded by accumulating evidence that the latest reforms were Maynard Keynes for reversing himself about a particular eco- not likely to live up to their promise. The more I saw, the more Inomic policy he had previously endorsed, he replied,“When the lost the faith. facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”1 This com- As I watched the choice and accountability movements gain ment may or may not be apocryphal, but I admire the thought momentum across the nation, I concluded that curriculum and behind it. It is the mark of a sentient human being to learn from instruction were far more important than choice and accountexperience, to pay close attention to how theories work out when ability. I feared that choice would let thousands of flowers bloom put into practice. but would not strengthen American education. It might even The task of sorting my articles gave me the opportunity to harm the public schools by removing the best students from review what I had written at different times, beginning in the mid- schools in the poorest neighborhoods. I was also concerned that 1960s. As I read and skimmed and accountability had become mecha remembered, I began to see two nistic and even antithetical to good themes at the center ofwhat I have education. Testing, I realized with been writing for more than four as i watched the choice and di

FAQs

What caused Ravitch’s views on school reform to change?

She experienced an intellectual crisis and, over time, was persuaded by evidence showing the latest reforms were unlikely to meet their promises in real settings.

Why does Ravitch question testing, accountability, and choice reforms?

She argues these ideas have become central but have produced doubts rather than results, and that choice could harm public schools by removing the best students from the poorest neighborhoods.

What does Ravitch propose instead of current reforms?

She emphasizes strengthening curriculum and instruction through a strong, coherent explicit program grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, with opportunities for active learning and preparation for democratic citizenship.

Oct 15, 2026

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