Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a preeminent historian of education. She blogs at dianeravitch.net, a site with nearly 8.3 million page views in less than a year. Author of over ten books, her most recent is Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools.
From 1991 to 1993, she was Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. She was responsible for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in the US Department of Education. As Assistant Secretary, she led the federal effort to promote the creation of voluntary state and national academic standards.
From 1997 to 2004, she was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal testing program. Ravitch was appointed by the Clinton administration’s Secretary of Education Richard Riley in 1997 and reappointed by him in 2001.
From 1995 until 2005, she held the Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution and edited Brookings Papers on Education Policy. Before entering government service, she was Adjunct Professor of History and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Ravitch was born in Houston, Texas and attended Houston public schools from kindergarten through high school. She tweets at @DianeRavitch.
