Happy Birthday Diane Ravitch

Today is the 70th birthday of the historian Diane Ravitch, fearless advocate of improving education. The celebrations kicked off earlier this month with a party at Frankie's 457 in Brooklyn thrown by her close friend Mary Butz.

Along with her two sons, Michael and Joseph, a new grandson, Elijah, and several classmates from her college days at Wellesley, some of
the biggest names in education came to toast Ms. Ravitch. The United Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten, praised Ms.
Ravitch as courageous; the dean of Columbia College, Katherine Yatrakis, attended; and the president of the Fordham Foundation, Chester Finn Jr., came in from Washington, D.C. Also present was Father Dennis Corrado of the Brooklyn Oratory, whom Ms. Ravitch joked makes her the only Jew in Brooklyn to have her own priest.