Diane Ravitch, one of the
country's leading authors and activists on education issues, will discuss
school reform in a speech at Duke University's Page Auditorium at 6 p.m.,
Monday, Oct. 3.
Her visit is sponsored jointly by
the university's Program in
Education and Durham Public Schools (DPS), each of which is arranging
private gatherings with Ravitch. She will meet that morning with Duke faculty
and administrators to discuss teacher education and partnerships between
schools and universities. In the afternoon, she will meet with DPS teachers,
principals, administrators and board members to discuss ways of enhancing
student performance.
"We worked together to arrange
this visit, which illustrates the long-standing and vibrant partnership the university
and its Program in Education have with the public schools," said Jan
Riggsbee, who directs the Duke program.
Ravitch is Research Professor of
Education at New York University and the author of 10 books on education and
education reform. She blogs for Education
Week, Politico and the Huffington
Post, and has written for many prominent publications. She held senior
education posts in the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and
was a prominent supporter of No Child Left Behind.
More recently, she has become an
outspoken skeptic of national testing, as in last year's book, "The
Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are
Undermining Education." Sam Dillon wrote in March
2010 in the New York Times that "Dr. Ravitch is one
of the most influential education scholars of recent decades, and her
turnaround has become the buzz of school policy circles."
Tickets
for the Page Auditorium talk are free. They are available
at the University box office, online at tickets.duke.edu
or by calling 919-684-4444.