In a work chock-full of disturbing analysis, perhaps the most telling chapter follows the meteoric rise of Rudy Crew from superintendent of Tacoma schools to the top job in New York City, the nation's largest district. After examining what really happened in Tacoma, Sacks makes the case that Crew's ascendance was based on a suspect and unsustainable spike in test scores. But test results, no matter how suspect, always seem to carry more weight than substance, Sacks told WW . And yet in the face of that research, the mania for testing increases. Politicians and the public have uncritically accepted a monumental increase in high-stakes tests everywhere from preschool to the National Football League.
Sacks suggests that rote learning and standardized testing be de-emphasized.