My most recent news work includes all press releases from June 2016 - May 2021 for the Texas Attorney General (link).

24 September, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. Diane Ravitch Gives Lecture at Baylor Criticizing the Fabric of Standardized Testing and Privatization of Public Education

WACO, TEXAS – Dr. Diane Ravitch visited Baylor University September 24th to deliver a lecture concerning the ongoing debate about standardized testing’s place in public education. As a former advocate for testing, particularly the creation of No Child Left Behind and Common Core testing, Ravitch now speaks heatedly against these programs.

She attacked the unsolved problem of poverty as a main cause for public school failures. “As poverty increases, scores fall. We [the U.S.] have low scores on international tests because so many of our children live in poverty,” said Ravitch. She goes on to claim that the solution is to offer funding to public schools instead of redistributing budgets to growing charter schools and do away with punishment for schools whose test scores fall below the standard. “Modern psychology says that people are motivated not by fear, but by idealism and purpose,” she said.

The Baylor Lariat recently claimed that the importance of her lecture rested on the fact that the issue of standardized testing is national and students are “embedded in the process.” Furthermore, the Waco Tribune-Herald stated that her praise of the rejection of Common Core testing is less prevalent in the surrounding area, although it is on the rise nationally. In New York State, 20 percent of students refused standardized testing.

The Texas State Teachers Association stated in an article covering the lecture that Ravitch is correct in claiming that Texas legislature is under-funding both education and healthcare, two major factors to students’ growth into creative, community-minded citizens.

Sophomore Avery Lane commented on the lecture, saying that Ravitch is “a fierce force for logic in what has become an illogical field,” and it seems that students across the nation support this view. Ravitch calls on the students and citizens to change the future of education by removing testing as a supposed cure for failure in the classroom. “[Legislature] says mend it. I say end it.” She closed to thunderous agreeing applause.  

Sources:

Baylor Lariat: Article

Waco Tribune-Herald: Article  

Texas State Teachers Association: Article

Photo Credit to Diane Ravitch’s twitter account