Diane Ravitch, usually a critic of the Gates Foundation’s approach to education reform, has radically changed course. In a recent New York Moon op ed titled “Size Does Matter,” Ravitch wrote that Gates’s smaller schools initiative “holds infinite promise of glory and will take American K-12 education to previously unimagined academic pinnacles of glowing success.” Her reversal took many by surprise, but Ravitch offered no justification for this sea change and has remained conspicuously unavailable for comment. Stopped by a window-shopping reporter while browsing at Manhattan’s new Versace store on 5th Avenue, Ravitch grew agitated. She rushed out the door, yelling, “Can’t someone just change their mind? I made a mistake, okay!” Ravitch then reportedly tripped over her Jimmy Choo suede slingbacks and fell to the sidewalk, spilling couture contents from her shopping bags, breaking her Mikimoto pearl necklace, and cracking her Chanel sunglasses. She scooped herself up into a waiting Maybach, hugged a yapping poodle who seemed glad to see her, screamed something at the chauffeur and zoomed off.
“Diane Ravitch, Diddy Throw Def St. Tropez Bash,” Us Weekly, March 27, 2006
“Ravitch: iMacs widen achievement gaps,” PC Magazine, March 19, 2006