An Illusion of Equity : The Legacy of Eugenics in Today's Education / Wendy Zagray Warren and Eric R. Jackson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Warren, Wendy Zagray, author.

Jackson, Eric, 1965- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (271 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Kentucky : The University Press of Kentucky, [2023]

Summary:

Public education plays a crucial role in crafting a nation's future. In the United States, education reform policy, particularly the reliance on large-scale, standardized testing, is a growing topic of national conversation and concern. An Illusion of Equity: The Legacy of Eugenics in Today's Education demonstrates how centuries of propaganda have led us to accept the idea that test scores indicate something so valuable about human beings that they should be used to organize society. Drawing on decades of experience as an educator, author Wendy Zagray Warren unpacks the origins of this practice, inviting us to probe the ideologies underlying testing procedures and score interpretation and to evaluate the rationale for using test scores as the sole markers for academic achievement. From the beginning, large-scale tests have produced scores divided by race and class. Initially, these results aligned with the eugenic ideology of its creators. Warren shows that while the rhetoric used to justify test-based policy has changed, the model used to produce test scores remains much the same. Therefore, so do the outcomes of test-based policies, which continue to reproduce and reinforce the existing social hierarchy of the United States. The hope of equity lies in educators charting new paths and scholars around the world who are dreaming new educational paradigms into being. Ultimately, Warren invites policymakers, educators, and parents to explore the richness of possibility when education is designed around the belief that every child is worthy of the opportunity to thrive.

Contents:

Cover

Praise for An Illusion of Equity

Halftitle page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Epigraph

Contents

Foreword

Introduction: Hartheim

Section 1: The Illusion and the Spin

1. A Façade of Assumptions: Myths, Beliefs, and Policy Mandates

2. A Nation at Risk: The Damage Done

Section 2: Scaffolding Caste

3. Constructing an Illusion: Assigning Human Worth

4. Measuring Human Worth: The Great Myths behind Large-Scale Testing

5. Evaluating Human Worth: The Rise of Educational Testing

6. "Experts," Opposition, and Obfuscation

7. Shifting Rhetoric: Meritocracy and Education as the Great Equalizer

Section 3: A Culture Framed by Illusions

8. Establishing a Culture: The Testing Model

9. Test Design

10. Collateral Damage

11. Inferences and Assumptions: Testing's Conceptual Framework

12. Translation for Liberation

Epilogue: Hope

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Warren, Wendy Zagray An Illusion of Equity

ISBN:

9780813197685

0813197686

OCLC:

1381092832