Scholar, policy maker and author Diane Ravitch will present "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" at 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 20, at UNC Charlotte Center City, as the guest speaker for the prestigious TIAA-CREF lecture.
“The TIAA-CREF lecture at UNC Charlotte is designed to connect the community and University around important ideas” said Mary Lynne Calhoun, dean of the College of Education, the sponsoring college for Ravitch's two Charlotte talks. “This is a community that cares deeply about the success of our schools, and Dr. Ravitch’s provocative ideas will provide a great opportunity for us to think together about the future of our schools and our children.”
Earlier that day, Ravitch will participate in a community conversation from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m., in Cone University Center, McKnight Hall This event is free and open to the public. Online registration is requested.
Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., has been called on by the White House to develop educational policy. A prolific writer, her most recent book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education,” makes the case that public education is in peril.
Drawing on more than 40 years of research experience, Ravitch critiques today’s most popular ideas for restructuring schools, including privatization, standardized testing, punitive accountability and the multiplication of charter schools. Ravitch serves on the board of the Core Knowledge Foundation, Common Core, Albert Shanker Institute of the American Federation of Teachers and Common Good. She is an honorary life trustee of the New York Public Library and a former Guggenheim Fellow. A native of Houston, she is a graduate of the Houston public schools. She received a bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 1960 and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1975.