In truth, the hastily assembled documents provided little more than a rehashing of the state test scores released last spring, coupled with attendance data. A lot of publicity followed the report cards. But hardly anybody asked whether the assessments have any validity, particularly since the report cards place so much weight on statewide testing scores. Into this near-vacuum of analysis steps Boise, Idaho, author Peter Sacks, whose book Standardized Minds, published in February, chronicles the development of standardized testing. Drawing on mountains of research and three years of original reporting, Sacks argues persuasively that standardized testing is a ruse, a gimmick that meets the requirements of an apathetic public and politicians who prefer to hold educators responsible for the results of poverty rather than attacking such problems themselves.
Sacks thinks the report was bogus.
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.