In her Academy Evening talk Diane Ravitch, the “best living historian of education” (Washington Post) and America’s “soberest, most history-minded education expert” (Wall Street Journal), gives us 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. Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University and senior fellow at Brookings Institution, is a 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. Presented in partnership with the UW-Madison School of Education and the Wisconsin Center on Education Research, with support from the Wisconsin Education Association Council and UW-Madison Lectures Committee. Recorded at the Memorial Union Theater, UW–Madison, on March 8, 2011.