The Gadfly page at EdExcellence.net has two interesting book reviews up this week. Both are new books which together define the endpoints of the opposing sides of the testing war.
The first book is Richard Phelps' Kill the Messenger: The War on Standardized Testing, and it rightfully notes that most Americans support standardized testing, but the educational "elite" often do not. It also points out the strong educational propaganda movement that is meant to discredit tests; as I've pointed out before, journalists who fail to question claims that tests are unfair, or racially-biased, help push this propaganda.
I'm delighted to see that the book is finally out; Richard is an acquaintance of mine, and I actually spoke with him a year or two back about possibly being involved with the book. I chose not to participate, but I'd be lying if I said that our conversations didn't have some impact on my decision to start this blog. The book also quotes Dr. Gregory Cizek, who is also a friend of mine and a very knowledgeable, outspoken professor. Anyway, as I said, I'm glad to see the book's finally been published; can't wait to see what the other reviews are.
The second book, which, funnily enough, has a very similar cover to Phelp's book (oh, those bubble sheets), takes the opposite tack. The Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing, by Gail Jones, Brett Jones, and Tracy Hargrove (all of whom are education professors, not psychometricians) focuses on the stress and anxiety caused by testing. The Gadfly takes the words right out of my mouth:
A perfect example of educationists' propaganda campaign against high-stakes testing mentioned above, this is a 180-page rant complete with students' drawings meant to illustrate their "stress and anxiety." If you accept the authors' underlying assumptions, which are unadulterated education progressivism/constructivism, then you, too, may share their conclusion that high-stakes testing has side effects that are bad for children and other living things...
Student drawings? Last I heard, students also like to draw insulting pictures of their teachers; does this mean teachers should be removed because they cause "stress"? Reviewer Chester Finn also notes that if "you want a single-volume recapitulation of all the arguments against high-stakes testing that you've ever encountered, this is the book for you." Sounds like it's definitely the book for me, so I'll have to get ahold of it and craft some counter-arguments. Then I could post them on this blog and invite the authors to respond. THAT could be fun.
Posted by kswygert at July 25, 2003 10:02 AM