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Slaying Goliath : the passionate resistance to privatization and the fight to save America's public schools / Diane Ravitch.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First Vintage Books editionDescription: 340 pages : illustrations ; 20 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780525564768
  • 0525564764
Subject(s):
Contents:
Disruption is not reform! -- The odious status quo -- What do the disrupters want? -- Meet the resistance -- The beginning of the end of disruption -- The resistance to high-stakes standardized testing -- Rewards and punishments are not good motivators -- Bait and switch : how liberals were duped into embracing school choice -- School choice, deregulation, and corruption -- The resistance fights back -- The resistance goes national -- Dark money in Massachusetts and Connecticut -- The miracles that weren't : New Orleans and Florida -- Common Core and a gaggle of other failed reforms -- The teachers revolt -- Goliath stumbles.
Summary: "From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, Slaying Goliath is an impassioned, inspiring look at the ways in which parents, teachers, and activists are successfully fighting back to defeat the forces that are trying to privatize America's public schools. Diane Ravitch writes of a true grassroots movement sweeping the country, from cities and towns across America, a movement dedicated to protecting public schools from those who are funding privatization and who believe that America's schools should be run like businesses and that children should be treated like customers or products. Slaying Goliath is about the power of democracy, about the dangers of plutocracy, and about the potential of ordinary people--armed like David with only a slingshot of ideas, energy, and dedication--to prevail against those who are trying to divert funding away from our historic system of democratically governed, nonsectarian public schools. Among the lessons learned from the global pandemic of 2020 is the importance of our public schools and their teachers and the fact that distance learning can never replace human interaction, the personal connection between teachers and students."--Publisher's website.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 371.0109 R256 Available 33111010463327
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Diane Ravitch writes of those who have privatized the schools, the Disrupters, who believe America's schools should be run like businesses, with teachers incentivized with threats and bonuses, and schools that need to enter into the age of the gig economy in which children are treated like customers or products. She writes of the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, the Waltons (Walmart), Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others, on the right and the left, as well as corporations, foundations, etc., intent on promoting the privatization of one of our most valued public institutions.

Ravitch lays out, in extensive detail, the facts showing that the ideas put forth by school privateers have failed; that their promises of higher test scores have not come to pass; that the "great hope" of Common Core has been a dud.

Arrayed against these forces, Ravitch writes of the volunteer army-"the Resisters"-that has sprung up from Seattle, Austin, and Denver to Detroit, New Orleans, and Buffalo-parents, teachers, grandparents, students, bloggers, religious leaders, brave individuals, who, spurred on by conviction, courage, determination, and the power of ideas and passion, are fighting back to successfully keep alive their public schools.

"Originally published in hardcover, in slightly different form, in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in 2020"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-322) and index.

"From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, Slaying Goliath is an impassioned, inspiring look at the ways in which parents, teachers, and activists are successfully fighting back to defeat the forces that are trying to privatize America's public schools. Diane Ravitch writes of a true grassroots movement sweeping the country, from cities and towns across America, a movement dedicated to protecting public schools from those who are funding privatization and who believe that America's schools should be run like businesses and that children should be treated like customers or products. Slaying Goliath is about the power of democracy, about the dangers of plutocracy, and about the potential of ordinary people--armed like David with only a slingshot of ideas, energy, and dedication--to prevail against those who are trying to divert funding away from our historic system of democratically governed, nonsectarian public schools. Among the lessons learned from the global pandemic of 2020 is the importance of our public schools and their teachers and the fact that distance learning can never replace human interaction, the personal connection between teachers and students."--Publisher's website.

Disruption is not reform! -- The odious status quo -- What do the disrupters want? -- Meet the resistance -- The beginning of the end of disruption -- The resistance to high-stakes standardized testing -- Rewards and punishments are not good motivators -- Bait and switch : how liberals were duped into embracing school choice -- School choice, deregulation, and corruption -- The resistance fights back -- The resistance goes national -- Dark money in Massachusetts and Connecticut -- The miracles that weren't : New Orleans and Florida -- Common Core and a gaggle of other failed reforms -- The teachers revolt -- Goliath stumbles.

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