Great School Wars

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor in the School of Education at New York University and holds the Herman and George R. Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution. She was an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, and she serves on the National Assessment Governing Board. Her publications include Learning from the Past: What History Teaches Us about School Reform and City Schools: Lessons from New York (both available from Johns Hopkins), The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945-1980, and Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (forthcoming).

Eases quietly into a ferociously angry subject... Diane Ravitch affirms her faith in the American dream despite a detailed narrative which suggests, if anything, that education in New York has fairly consistently failed those who needed it most... Meticulously detailed and strains for fairness and impartiality. -- George Levine New York Times This volume fills an enormous gap in the city's educational history... Scholars are not likely to demolish her principal theme-that the city's educational history reflects its demographic, political, and social history. -- Frederick Shaw Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Ravitch asks us to recognize that the public schools cannot solve all the problems of society, and asks us to reconsider catchwords of the moment by reminding us that they echo the slogans of past failures. An excellent work. New Yorker A detailed, absorbing history of the New York City public schools within the context of politics. Choice Ravitch's writing is clear, crisp, unadorned, and forceful. The cast of characters and their achievements are neatly and economically sketched, and the pages enlivened with provocative asides... The public will find The Great School Wars a relevant and informative overview of a critical period, while scholars will be encouraged to look anew at New York's educational history. -- Sol Cohen Teachers College Record One of the most absorbing, penetrating, and important works of American history to appear in recent years. The Great School Wars, for scope, richness of detail, and intellectual coherence, is an unusual book. -- Jack Chatfield National Review