Ravitch, Diane. The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. New York: Basic Books, 2011.

Summary
This book re-examines contemporary school reform movements – accountability and choice in particular – that Ravitch initially supported in her career. She looks at the contemporary history behind these reform efforts, both the players and ideas, and refutes the value of these reforms for public school education. Following her work under the Bush administration, Ravitch argued (for over a decade) that certain managerial and structural changes – choice, charters, merit pay, and accountability – would help to reform American public schools; schools would be judged by performance (business principle/market reform for a leaner government). Schools would thus be aligned with modern and high performance organizations and enable American education to transition from the industrial age to the post-industrial age (*Again, societal changes reflected in the school, and its reciprocal effect outwards). As a result, government run schools were seen as ineffective because they were a monopoly and had no incentive to do better. Democrats in the 1990s saw the opportunity to reinvent government; Republicans saw the opportunity to diminish the power of Teachers’ unions. Thus, charter schools gained bipartisan support. Over time, however, Ravitch came to realize that curriculum and instruction were more important than accountability and reform; that market reforms would not be (and may have a negative impact) the panacea for public education. This book examines the evidence that changed Ratvitch’s views: the political controversy of the history curriculum in the 1990s, the narrowing of reform efforts to math and literacy scores (case students in District 2, San Diego, and NYC), the manipulation of the charter school mission, emphasis on testing for accountability and measurement of school success, and the influence of foundations on school reform.