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Ravitch Speaks to Large Waco Hall Crowd

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--RavitchBLog-400Renowned researcher, author and former assistant secretary of education Dr. Diane Ravitch spoke at Baylor University, articulating a vision of hope for American K-12 students — free of excessive standardized testing.

Ravitch spoke on Thursday, Sept. 28, in Waco Hall to hundreds of students, faculty and community members, including many professional educators. Main sponsors were the Baylor School of Education Distinguished Lecture Series and the Academy for Leader Development Lecture Series.

“Children must be given hope,” Ravitch said. “We should be judging students on their creativity and potential, not their standardized test score.”

Ravitch, who was an appointee of both a Republican and Democratic president, has been a strong voice in the opposition to the ‘No Child Left Behind Act’ and state mandated standardized testing, after she was a supporter of both during her service as an assistant U.S. aecretary of education.

Ravitch also pointed out the positive correlation between children in poverty and lower performing schools and test scores.

“Standardized test never have and never will help civil rights or help to end poverty,” Ravitch said. “If [we] want to increase achievement in schools, we must reduce poverty.”

Ravitch engaged and informed the crowd with passionate stories and valuable ideas that could be solutions in fixing our broken education system.

“Everything she said was all so true,” junior psychology major Arcadia Ramirez said. “It’s so sad to see what teachers go through and not get any credit for it.”

Senior social work major Anthony Farfan said he felted affirmed in his decision to pursue a master’s degree in education. “I want to be a voice for reform in education,” Farfan said. “I believe in the holistic approach when it comes to education and that we should treat students like people and not products.”

To read the story in the Waco Tribune-Herald, click HERE.

—By Taliyah Clark

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