A measure of failure : the political origins of standardized testing / Mark J. Garrison.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Garrison, Mark J., 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Achievement tests--United States--History.

Achievement tests.

Education--Standards--United States--History.

Education.

Achievement tests--History--United States.

Education--Standards--History--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 140 p. )

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How did standardized tests become the measure of performance in our public schools? In this compelling work, Mark J. Garrison attempts to answer this question by analyzing the development of standardized testing, from the days of Horace Mann and Alfred Binet to the current scene. Approaching the issue from a sociohistorical perspective, the author demonstrates the ways standardized testing has been used to serve the interests of the governing class by attaching a performance-based value to people and upholding inequality in American society. The book also discusses the implications that a restructuring of standardized testing would have on the future of education, specifically what it could do to eliminate the measure of individual worth based on performance.

Contents:

A measure of failure

The nature and function of standards

Academic achievement and ability as forms of vertical classification

Standardized tests as markers of social value

The rise of public education: the impulse to mark achievement and ability

Achievement testing: the case of Horace Mann

Intelligence testing: the case of Alfred Binet

Political origins of testing

The failure of testing.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-131) and index.

ISBN:

1-4416-2408-2