A Measure of Failure: The Political Origins of Standardized Testing
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."Both original and provocative,A Measure of Failureis a compelling account of the historical and contemporary relationship between standardized testing in education and processes of state formation." -- Thomas C. Pedroni, author ofMarket Movements: African American Involvement in School Voucher Reform--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.