A measure of failure

by Mark J. Garrison

This work deals with how and why standardized tests have become the ubiquitous standard by which educational achievement and intelligence are measured. How did standardized tests become the measure of performance in our public schools? In this work, the author 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.