Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. In addition, she is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

She shares a blog called Bridging Differences with Deborah Meier, hosted by Education Week. She also blogs for Politico.com and Huffingtonpost.com. Her articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines.

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, Ravitch was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal testing program. She 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.

Her most recent book is The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. In addition, she has edited fourteen books, including The American Reader; The English Reader (with Michael Ravitch); The Democracy Reader (with Abigail Thernstrom); Forgotten Heroes of American Education (with Wesley Null); Learning from the Past (with Maris Vinovskis); and New Schools for a New Century (with Joseph Viteritti). She has written more than 500 articles and reviews for scholarly and popular publications.

She serves on the board of the Core Knowledge Foundation; Common Core; the Albert Shanker Institute of the American Federation of Teachers; and Common Good. She is an honorary life trustee of the New York Public Library and a former Guggenheim Fellow.

In 2004, Ravitch received the Leadership Award of the New York City Council of Supervisors and Administrators. In 2005, she received the John Dewey Award from the United Federation of Teachers of New York City; the Gaudium Award of the Breukelein Institute; and the Uncommon Book Award from the Hoover Institution. In 2006, the Kenneth J. Bialkin/Citigroup Public Service Award was conferred on her. In 2010, the National Education Association selected her as its "Friend of Education" for the year.