A historian tries to understand what happened, why it happened, what was the context, who did what, and what assumptions led them to act as they did. A historian customarily displays a certain diffidence about trying to influence events, knowing that unanticipated developments often lead to unintended consequences.

D. org/fellows/12014-diane-s-ravitch
Honorary Life Trustee New York Public Library
John Dewey Award United Federation of Teachers New York City 2005
Gaudium Award from the Breukelein Institute 2005
Uncommon Book Award Hoover Institution 2005
NEA Friend of Education 2010
American Association of School Administrators American Education Award 2011
Outstanding Friend of Education Award Horace Mann League 2011
DistinguiDiane Ravitchd Service Award National Association of Secondary School Principals 2011
Honorary degrees from

Williams College
Reed College
Amherst College
State University of New York
Ramapo College
Saint Joseph's College (New York)
Middlebury College Language Schools
Union College
Siena College


See also
The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. Of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's Race to the Top program Ravitch said in a 2011 interview it "is an extension of No Child Left Behind.

S. Previously Diane Ravitch was a U.