Diane Ravitch is Research Professor in the School of Education at New York University and holds the Herman and George R. Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution. She was an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, and she serves on the National Assessment Governing Board. Her publications include Learning from the Past: What History Teaches Us about School Reform; and The Great School Wars: New York City, 1805-1973, both available from Johns Hopkins, and Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (forthcoming). Joseph P. Viteritti is Research Professor of Public Administration at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He has served as a special assistant to the chancellor of the New York City public school system and as a senior advisor to the school superintendents in Boston and San Francisco. His publications include Across the River: Politics and Education in the City and Choosing Equality: School Choice, the Constitution, and Civil Society. The editors co-chair the Program on Education and Civil Society at New York University.