Diane Ravitch, CO-CHAIR OF COMMON CORE and RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. She is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. From 1991 to 1993, Ms. Ravitch 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 U.S. Department of Education. As Assistant Secretary, she led the federal effort to promote the creation of state and national academic standards.

Ms. Ravitch was appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board by Secretary of Education Richard Riley in 1997 and reappointed 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.

She is the author of many books, including The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (2003), Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform (2000), National Standards in American Education: A Citizen’s Guide (1995), The Troubled Crusade: American Education, 1945-1980, What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know? (with Chester Finn, Jr., 1987), and The Schools We Deserve (1985). In addition, she has edited fourteen books, including The English Reader (2006) and The American Reader (1990), written more than 400 articles and reviews, and has lectured throughout the United States and the world on democracy and civic education.

Ms. Ravitch serves on the board of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the Core Knowledge Foundation, the Albert Shanker Institute of the American Federation of Teachers, the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy, and Common Good. She is an honorary life trustee of the New York Public Library and a former Guggenheim Fellow.

Ms. Ravitch has received numerous awards, including the John Dewey Award from the United Federation of Teachers of New York City in 2005, the Gaudium Award of the Breukelein Institute, the Uncommon Book Award from the Hoover Institution, and the Kenneth J. Bialkin/Citigroup Public Service Award in 2006. A native of Houston, she is a graduate of the Houston public schools. She received a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and honorary degrees from several institutions.

Earlier this year, Common Core's report shows a nation STILL AT RISK. Nearly a quarter of students polled could not identify Adolf Hitler and half had no idea what the Renaissance was. To learn more read the report, press release or stories at ABC News, CBS News, The New York Times, and USA TODAY. Or take the test yourself.

FROM THE BENCH: "One unintended effect of the No Child Left Behind Act, …, is that it has effectively squeezed out civics education because there is no testing for that anymore and no funding for that. And at least half of the states no longer make the teaching of civics and government a requirement for high school graduation. This leaves a huge gap, and we can't forget that the primary purpose of public schools in America has always been to help produce citizens who have the knowledge and the skills and the values to sustain our republic as a nation, our democratic form of government," former justice Sandra Day O'Connor said. (cont'd)

CAMPAIGN FILE: Sen. John McCain recalls his English teacher: “There was one friendship that enriched my life at Episcopal High School beyond measure... Mr. Ravenel was head of the English Department... He loved English literature, and taught us to love it as well... He made us appreciate how profound were the emotions that animated the characters in Shakespeare's tragedies. MacBeth and Hamlet in his care were as compelling to boys as they were to the most learned scholar.” (cont'd)

CAMPAIGN FILE: Sen. Barack Obama said “One of the problems with No Child Left Behind is that it has become so reliant on a standardized test model that—first of all—subjects like history and social studies have gotten pushed aside. Arts and music time is no longer there. So the child is not having the well-rounded educational experience I benefited from and most in my generation benefited from.” (cont'd)