In Debate With Rhee, Ravitch Says Teachers Being Demoralized

The Washington Post (8/19, Layton) reports, "Michelle A. Rhee, the former D.C. schools chancellor whose take-no-prisoners stance shook up the city and transformed her into a leader of the school reform movement, parried with Diane Ravitch, an education historian whose criticisms of charter schools and high stakes testing has made her a hero to teachers' unions and many defenders of traditional public education. The Martha's Vineyard encounter was the pair's first faceoff in person." Ravitch, "a former assistant education secretary under President George H.W. Bush, maintained that teachers are being scapegoated. 'I have been seeing profound demoralization among teachers in America today,' Ravitch said. 'It is almost hard to convey. Teachers feel they are being held accountable for social conditions beyond their control.'"