Diane Ravitch's new book "Reign of Error" seeks to discredit the American education reform community. Ravitch is especially critical of charter schools and standardized testing, and she argues that we need to return our full focus back to enriching public schools.
Nina Rees, the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, wrote an op-ed in the U.S. News and World Report to dismiss Ravitch's attacks. Rees argues that charter schools are helping prepare students against a global talent pool, charter schools are not amounting to a "corporate take-over" of schooling, and charter schools disproportionally serve low-income and minority students:
Ravitch closes her book with some common-sense ideas supported by many in the education reform community: expanded access to pre-natal care, higher quality early childhood education, focusing every school on a rich and balanced curriculum, reducing the focus on high-stakes testing and strengthening the teaching profession. But her dismissal of any efforts to improve our schools by demanding rigor and accountability and inviting the private sector (for profit or not) to partner with our schools to help them succeed is disingenuous at its best and harmful to American children at its worst.
