Contact: Jason A. Smith, communications director
Madison—The Wisconsin Academy will host a live-streamed webcast of a discussion with education historian and policy analyst Diane Ravitch on Tuesday, March 8th, at 7:00 pm on its website http://www.wisconsinacademy.org. Ravitch, the “best living historian of education” (Washington Post) and America’s “soberest, most history-minded education expert” (Wall Street Journal), will give one of the best-informed analyses of the current state of American education—what’s broken and what are the best ways to fix it—and discuss the current collective bargaining standoff in Wisconsin at a free, public event sponsored by the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, the UW–Madison School of Education, and the Wisconsin Center on Education Research, with support from the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) and the UW–Madison Lectures Committee.
The discussion with Ravitch, titled The Future of Public Education, will be held on Tuesday, March 8, 2011, from 7:00–8:30 pm in the Wisconsin Union Theater, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street, in Madison. The presentation, which includes a thirty-minute Q&A portion, is free and open to the public. Students, parents of students, and education professionals are encouraged to attend in person or online at http://www.wisconsinacademy.org.
About Diane Ravitch
Diane Ravitch is a research professor of education at New York University, senior fellow at Brookings Institution, renowned education historian, and author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System (2010). Her book, which takes issue with both the political right and left, has been called a “must read” for education policymakers at all levels of government. Click here for image and complete biography.
About the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters
Founded in 1870, the Wisconsin Academy applies the sciences, arts, and letters to bring context, civilized discussion, and meaningful action to the most important issues of today. We create spaces—public forums, art galleries, publications—where citizens join together to examine the challenges of our times, suggest solutions, and look at the world in new ways. We celebrate and preserve Wisconsin’s human, cultural, and natural resources. In this way the Wisconsin Academy connects people and ideas for a better Wisconsin.
The Future of Public Education with Diane Ravitch is the first public forum in a three-part Academy Evenings series of events, entitled “Education is Fundamental,” held during March 2011. For “Education is Fundamental” the Wisconsin Academy brings together leading historians, researchers, and administrators in the field of education to discuss the most important educational challenges facing Wisconsin—a picture of dysfunction but also innovation—and offer their ideas for repair. For more information on this dynamic series, which is free and open to the public, visit wisconsinacademy.org/evenings.
