Diane Ravitch [1], the historian and former assistant education secretary who has become an outspoken critic of those who favor high-stakes testing, tenure reforms and other controversial measures aimed at the public schools, has joined with other education advocates to form a group that will grade and endorse political candidates, the New York Times reports. The group will be called the Network for Public Education [2] and is co-founded by Anthony Cody, a former teacher and now a blogger on education issues [3]. It will try to bring together parents, teachers and other local interest groups from across the country through social networking. Ms. Ravitch said the network was calling for broad-minded public school curriculums that included arts, sciences, foreign languages and physical education; better financing for schools; more respect for teachers; and the “appropriate use of testing to help students and teachers, not to punish or reward students, teachers, principals, or to close schools,” she wrote in an eMail…