Diane Ravitch

Diane Silvers Ravitch (born July 1, 1938, in Houston, Texas) is an American historian and education policy analyst who holds a research professorship at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She served in the U.S. Department of Education as Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement under President George H. W. Bush. Ravitch built her early career as an advocate for standardized testing and school choice, but by around 2010 she reversed her position and became one of the most prominent critics of high-stakes testing and charter-school privatization, arguing that poverty, not teacher quality, is the strongest predictor of low academic performance. Her books, including The Death and Life of the Great American School System (2010) and Reign of Error (2013), argue for strengthening public education against market-based reforms she believes ignore systemic inequity.