Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform

by Diane Ravitch

Description

"Left Back recounts grandiose efforts by education reformers to use the schools to promote social and political goals, even when they diminished the schools' ability to educate children. It shows how generations of reformers have engaged in social engineering, advocating such innovations as industrial education, intelligence testing, curricular differentiation, and life-adjustment education. These reformers, she demonstrates, simultaneously mounted vigorous campaigns against academic show more studies." "In describing the wars between competing traditions of education, Ravitch points the way to reviving American education. She argues that all students have the capacity to learn and that all are equally deserving of a solid liberal arts education. Left Back addresses issues of the utmost importance and urgency. It is a large work of history that by recovering the past illuminates a future."--Jacket. show less

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carterchristian1 1,124 reviews

I just read this and upped it from 2 to 4 stars. Published just before No Child Left Behind the famous author presents one of the best histories of educational policy in the United States I have ever read and points to the future. Interesting she mentions both Clinton and Bush 2 as govenors with education programs, and this was before the election of 2000 was over.

Apr 6, 2011

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Diane Ravitch

32+ Works 3,151 Members

Diane Ravitch is the Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. She is the former assistant secretary of education and a former member of the National Assessment Governing Board. The author of ten books, including Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public show more Schools, Ravitch lives in Brooklyn, New York. show less

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Blurbers: Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr.; Bennett, William J.; Dionne, E. J., Jr.; Schmidt, Benno C.; Lind, Michael; Stimpson, Catharine R.

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Members: 197
Popularity: 165,393
Reviews: 1
Rating: (4.04)

Languages: English
Media: Paper
ISBNs: 2

Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform

by Diane Ravitch

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