From WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Wednesday, December 3rd.

You know, it's not often that a public figure begins a book by acknowledging plainly that they change their mind, no less change their

mind on something really big. But within the first few lines of her new memoir, an education,

how I changed my mind about schools and almost everything else, historian Diane Ravich reflects

on the positions that she once champion, school choice,

charter expansion, standardized testing, and the moment she came to the conclusion that the evidence

no longer supported them. She writes, I was wrong. How often do you see that?

Ravich, who advised the administrations of President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton,

has since become one of the country's most forceful advocates for public schools and one of the

most vocal critics of test-driven reform. Our guest now is Diane Ravich, historian of education

and former research professor of education at NYU, blogger at diane ravich.net, and author of the new book,

An Education, How I Change My Mind About Schools and Almost Everything Else.

Diane Ravich, Dr. Ravich, welcome back to WNYC.

Well, thank you so much, Brian.

Delighted to be with you.

And listeners, what about you?

Have you found your own thinking shifting over the years about public schools, testing, school

choice?

Maybe you've had experiences as a parent, a teacher, or a student that changed how you see

these debates.

And we'd also love to hear from some listeners who support charter schools or school choice generally or the way standardized tests have been used or are being used under President Bush, either one back then or Obama or anyone else.

What have you seen in your community that you think has become better because of any of those things?

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