SESSION TYPE: Featured Speaker SESSION TITLE: The Death and Life of the Great American School System STRAND: Whole School Issues DAY: Friday TIME: 2:30 - 3:30pm LOCATION: Mercury Ballroom, 3rd floor

In her first presentation about her new book, Diane Ravitch will describe her explosive findings. What is now called "school reform" is actually toxic to American public education. Testing has become an end in itself, rather than a useful measure. Accountability is being misused to punish teachers and principals. Choice has turned into a means of privatizing public schools and removing the most motivated students from the poorest neighborhoods. Our current strategies are sending our schools in the wrong direction and will not produce better educated citizens.

***BOOK SIGNING AT ONSITE BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSTORE TO FOLLOW SESSION (click here for schedule)

BIOGRAPHY

Diane Ravitch is an eminent historian of education and author of many books about American education. Her latest book The Death and Life of the Great American School System is a hard-hitting, controversial analysis of current efforts to reform public education, including choice, accountability, and “teacher effectiveness.”