ACADEMICS—particularly the kind who write opinion pieces and magazine articles on public policy—are often accused of being so far removed from the real world that their back-seat theorizing (a) bears a distant relation to reality and (b) would have little practical value if carried out. Playing against type, Diane Ravitch, a Columbia University education historian recently nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Educational Research and Improvement, has put her money where her mouth is in the controversial field of multicultural education.