JOHNSTON CENTER EVENTS

2006-2007 Frank Porter Graham Lecture

Author. Advocate. Tireless crusader for school reform. Education adviser to two presidents. Diane Ravitch has spent more than thirty years working to improve the American education system. She is widely credited as one of the architects of the move towards national standardized testing, which has become a cornerstone of the No Child Left Behind legislation. This September, she will come to North Carolina to discuss "The Past and Future of No Child Left Behind" --its historical antecedents, its connection to the first Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, its implications for children in poverty, the national goals of the 1990s, and where we go from here.

The educational reforms enacted by No Child Left Behind directly impact the lives of thousands of North Carolina students, parents, and educators. The requirements of this national reform act, originally passed in 2002, include mandatory testing in grades 3-8 and at least once in grades 10-12. No Child Left Behind uses these test scores to determine not just a student’s progress, but also to evaluate teachers and entire schools, which in turn affects every neighborhood and community in North Carolina. Dr. Ravitch’s research explores the benefits, and potential pitfalls, of these testing standards. Her work and dedication to improving our nation’s schools lends an important perspective on how No Child Left Behind can help North Carolina’s students and communities.

Dr. Ravitch has served in the Department of Education under Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. In addition to being on the faculty of New York University, Dr. Ravitch is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. She is the author most recently of The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (2003) and Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (2000), among other books and articles. She co-edited, along with her son Michael Ravitch, the forthcoming anthology The English Reader: What Every Literate Person Needs to Know.

An admirer of Frank Porter Graham, Dr. Ravitch received a B.A. from Wellesley College in 1960 and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1975. Before entering government service, Dr. Ravitch taught at Columbia University and her first book, The Great School Wars: New York, 1805-1973 (1974), immediately established her as one of the leading thinkers on the past and future of our nation’s schools.

A Selection of Articles by Diane Ravitch

• "Bridging Differences - A Dialogue Between Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch" - Education Week, May 24, 2006. (free registration required)
• "The Fall of the Standard Bearers" - Chronicle of Higher Education, March 10, 2006.
• "National Standards" - Education Week, January 5, 2006. (free registration required)
• "Downsize High Schools? Not Too Far" - Washington Post, November 6, 2005.
  

The Frank Porter Graham lecture series honors the late U.S. Senator and president of the University of North Carolina, who was a champion of freedom, democracy, and the disadvantaged.

The lecture is made possible by the gift of Taylor McMillan '60, who established the Frank Porter Graham Lecture Series to honor the late University president.

A complete listing of all events at the Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence is available at our Event Calendar.