Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry

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Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry

3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 · rating details · 43 ratings · 19 reviews

The No Child Left Behind Act uses the phrase scientifically-based research more than 100 times when discussing standardized testing, but Making the Grades raises serious questions about the validity of many large-scale assessments simply by describing one man's career in the industry. This first-hand account of life in the testing business is alternately edifying and hilar...more

Paperback, 272 pages

Published October 1st 2009 by Berrett-Koehler Publishers (first published 2009)

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Jun 16, 2012 Drew rated it 2 of 5 stars

Farley's book purports to explore the seamy underbelly of the US standardized testing industry--to expose the lies, corruption, and just general scandalous behavior that pervades and supports it, and that apparently nobody has known about before now. But as Lynch proved in Blue Velvet, and as DFW further proved in "Authority and American Usage," everything has a seamy underbelly, and therein lies one of my many issues with the book: its assumption that your average book-reading American thinks t...more Farley's book purports to explore the seamy underbelly of the US standardized testing industry--to expose the lies, corruption, and just general scandalous behavior that pervades and supports it, and that apparently nobody has known about before now. But as Lynch proved in Blue Velvet, and as DFW further proved in "Authority and American Usage," everything has a seamy underbelly, and therein lies one of my many issues with the book: its assumption that your average book-reading American thinks there's nothing already seriously wrong with the standardized testing industry. For instance, did anyone outside the industry ever really believe that adding a subjective "writing" portion to the SAT was a particularly good idea? I was in high school at the time, and was a capable writer, but even then, I was apprehensive at the thought of a stranger grading my extemporaneous essay.

Second thing: the book's scope is way narrower than you'd expect, given the title and the extremely misleading cover image (on the copy I got from the library, it has some unbubbled multiple choice questions overlaid with squiggly lines). Farley hardly ever mentions multiple choice tests, aside from giving them a little lip service (and tacit endorsement) in his epilogue. Nor does he ever mention the ACT, the SAT, the GRE, or any number of other post-secondary tests. He's exclusively ranting about K-12 tests, and specifically the open-ended questions on each. Which, again, is anyone surprised that that particular aspect isn't a good metric for students' general intelligence? Maybe I'm just hyper-sensitive to the fact that he doesn't address multiple choice questions and the corruption that almost certainly goes along with them, because I work for a test prep company, but it still seems very misleading.

Farley's not a great writer, either, for someone whose life goal (as he says over and over) was/is to be a "real" writer. The blurbs on the back are startling to me, mainly because I agree with none of them: "shocking," "hilarious," "fiercely urgent," "smooth and amiable," etc. Certainly nothing in the book is shocking to me, as I've said. I did find the book occasionally funny, and this Farley guy seems like the type I'd enjoy drinking with, but I wouldn't go so far as to use any of those adjectives above. My guess is that most of the blurb-writers were either phoning it in (as they so often seem to) or were just pleased to read a non-fiction book that was accessible (another adjective often applied to it). The lazy, slangy prose is easy on the brain but doesn't have much else going for it, and Farley's got some weird grammatical quirks that probably should have been edited out, mostly having to do with adding commas where none are needed.

You know, I was going to say way more about this, but I'll just boil it down to this point. Farley's thesis is basically that he feels uneasy about entrusting the decisions regarding student promotion and graduation, increased federal funding for schools, and continued employment for teachers to a bunch of surly, underpaid, overworked, alcoholic temps. More broadly, he's trying to tell us that our lives are quite often in the hands of people who may well be incompetent, or at least unqualified. But when has that ever not been true?

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Mar 15, 2011 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: teachers, parents, "educators"

Shelves: nonfiction

If nothing else, it's a page-turner.

Here's the basic premise: A guy, short on cash and too unmotivated (lazy?) to find a proper job decides to work as a temporary scorer for a standardized testing company. He complains for 272 pages about how the other scorers are dim, unfit to score high-stakes state exams, blah, blah, blah, while also assuming that he is somehow different than the rest of the scorers--above it all. He says, "Look! That woman doesn't speak English! She's unfit to score an Engli...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Sarah rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: perhaps my worst enemy

"Misadventures" is a spot-on descriptor for this book. I'm infinitely sorry that I wasted the little time it took me to read this. I'm not unfamiliar with the testing industry, but this is more a rant about Todd Farley's work for his former employer (and he makes it quite clear which company he worked for) than anything else. Apparently others who read this book found it to be some kind of revelation of the shady goings-on within the industry and as evidence that standardized testing is, well, b...more "Misadventures" is a spot-on descriptor for this book. I'm infinitely sorry that I wasted the little time it took me to read this. I'm not unfamiliar with the testing industry, but this is more a rant about Todd Farley's work for his former employer (and he makes it quite clear which company he worked for) than anything else. Apparently others who read this book found it to be some kind of revelation of the shady goings-on within the industry and as evidence that standardized testing is, well, bs. To that I'd counter that the only evidence of this is based on his personal experiences scoring the constructed responses of grade school students, which he happily and excruciatingly (the whole book oozes his superiority complex in its tone) recounts throughout this book. So, apparently we're supposed to take Mr. Farley's disgruntled anecdotes from his days working at a for-profit testing company in the '90s as a substitute for real evidence? I don't think so. Furthermore, Mr. Farley has parlayed this into a career for himself as some kind of authority on the general subject matter based on his singular experiences. All of this based on his hearsay "evidence" from 10-15 years ago? I wonder how many non-disclosure agreements he flirted with violating by writing this...I'm also curious as to the reactions of the company that he targets most as well as the others that he suggests are all in collusion with one another in this vitriolic "exposé" and indictment of the entire industry based on (again) his personal and obviously unbiased account of his work there. (He makes it pretty clear that there's no love lost between him and his former employer. Hmmm. I wonder why that is?)

I actually saw an article very recently that Mr. Farley wrote for The Huffington Post in which he...wait for it...lambasts standardized testing. He establishes his credibility (I'm using that term loosely) as some kind of authority on the subject of education in general on being the author of this book. Given his oft repeated refrain of wanting to be "a real writer" (he makes it quite clear that he has no interest in testing and is just biding his time on the island of misfits that populate the company he collects his paycheck from until he makes the aforementioned transition to "real writer"), I wouldn't be especially quick to take ownership of Making the Grades both because the evidence is so weak and because I didn't even find the writing itself to be nearly as impressive as his ego seems to have been telling him that it is.

Maybe I'd have given this a better rating if I didn't find both the content of the book and its author as odious as I do (and that's just based on his tone since I'm thrilled to say that I've never met him). I really can't recall a book I've disliked as much as particular one. Hopefully I never will.(less)

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Apr 22, 2010 Kathleen rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you've ever wondered about the validity of national standardized test scores of open-ended questions, the author will give you the benefit of his years in the field. His behind-the-scenes experiences, from beginning scorer to trainer, question-writer, and moderator for groups developing scoring rubrics, give a depressing picture of scores assigned more for consistency with norms than accuracy, overworked and undertrained scorers trying to follow ambiguous rubrics, and the occasional fiddling...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Julia Shay rated it 5 of 5 stars

I am giving this entertaining, autobiographical work a solid 5. Perhaps it's because I read this book just as I was found out that half of my salary was about to be based on standardized test scores. Perhaps it's that I found the writing both droll and eye-opening. Either way, I am hoping that a high score encourages more readers to take an interest in this topic. After years in the industry, the author rightly warns us that in using standardized test scores to decide what to pay teachers and ma...more

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May 15, 2011 Alexis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Very eye opening. I worked the day shift in the Tucson, AZ scoring center he describes, and it was every bit as strange as he says. There were some really odd people there. Also it seemed like they kept changing the grading rules on us. I remember thinking I was making great money at the time--like $10 an hour, geez. I also met my worst boyfriend ever at that job! (He later told me that he was going to the bathroom and doing speed to keep his scoring stats up.) So yeah, weirdos and losers (like...more

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Jan 03, 2010 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: teaching

Granted, anecdotes are not always the best evidence, but Farley's experiences in the standardized testing business are a sobering reminder that mass grading of tests has its pitfalls. For instance, if an evaluator doesn't understand the difference between our planet rotating on its axis and Earth rotating around the sun, he or she might have a problem judging whether a fourth grader knows the difference.

Great fodder for those who don't believe standardized testing is the best measure of the educ...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Christa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shocking.

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Nov 03, 2010 Claudia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: professional-reading

"I don't believe the results of standardized testing because most of the major players in the industry are for-profit enterprises that -- even if they do have the word EDUCATION in their names -- are pretty clearly in the business as much to make big bucks as to make good tests." I liked a lot of Farley's book because I have such a connection to the setting -- Iowa City! I passed the big standardized testing center several times a week, and never really thought much about what went on inside the...more

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May 02, 2013 Kelly Junno added it

How ironic would it be to give this book a rating? Or if goodreads had a rating rubric that we could follow to give this book a holistic score? Should I weight tone and narrative flow equally with pertinent information and scholarly research? What if my score is too far off from the average rating? Haha, I could go on, but it would really only be meaningful to those who have read the book. So onto my own opinion (although that seems to be all those scores are anyway).

So I have to admit that I d...more How ironic would it be to give this book a rating? Or if goodreads had a rating rubric that we could follow to give this book a holistic score? Should I weight tone and narrative flow equally with pertinent information and scholarly research? What if my score is too far off from the average rating? Haha, I could go on, but it would really only be meaningful to those who have read the book. So onto my own opinion (although that seems to be all those scores are anyway).

So I have to admit that I did think that this book was going to be more scholarly, more based on facts and research with which I could build my arsenal of weapons against proponents of the standardized testing industry (not that I really know too many). But the book is definitely a narrative, perhaps even a personal reflection. Not that that's not a valuable contribution to the standardized testing debate. In fact, I think that with the standardized testing industry anecdotal evidence is particularly relevant because if one person, especially a person who worked in the industry for 15 years, had an experience contrary to what we've come to consider "standardized," it refutes the the word's very definition. Farley's story is evidence of just how broken our educational system is, and I think that exposing the inherent ineffectiveness of the system that determines the fate of so many children is the best argument against it. Whether you believe that children should be assessed based on their unique skills and strengths or you think that there is indeed one standardized skill set that every child needs in order to be successful, the fact is that the assessment process is just too random to be reliable. It's like the death penalty, whether you're for it or against it, the system is so broken that simply cannot dole out the justice it is supposed to.

My main criticism of this book is that Farley spend too much time regaling us with his trips and travails as a limb of the testing industry and not enough time assessing and synthesizing his experiences. His experiences are certainly relevant and important to his point, but he waits until long after the natural point-making-juncture is past to make his point. He does finally make it in the epilogue, but I wish it had been worked into the book earlier. He also could have really hit home with more information about how tests are actually functioning in the lives of children and teachers in the US, like what they determine, how much time they take out of classroom learning, how they are affecting actual lives. He could have illuminated No Child Left Behind, which I'm sure no one reading the book fully understands, and could perhaps have talked about the racial and socio-economic implications of the test. I guess we are just supposed to read another book if we want to learn about those.

But despite the lazy research, I certainly did enjoy this book and feel like I better understand how the gears turn in the standardized testing industry now. If you read it, you just have to accept it for what it is and take it as one piece of evidence against an industry that is at the crux of far too many crucial decisions. (less)

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Jul 24, 2012 Andy Ross rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a very troubling book about how standardized testing is, not to put too fine a point on it, a fraud. The author worked in the industry for 10 years and saw how the scores were manipulated on a consistent basis. In spite of the deep seriousness of the subject, the author had an amazing comic style. I mean fall of bed laughing. One of the funniest books I have ever read.

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Jan 14, 2013 Robin Tzucker rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was incredibly depressing. Well written, funny anecdotes, but depressing all the same. This book should be required reading for every superintendent of public instruction, every legislator, every parent, and anyone who is involved in making decisions about testing our kids. Teachers already know all this.....there wasn't anything in the book that was horribly surprising but more that it confirmed what we all suspect.

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Apr 22, 2013 Amelia rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was an eye opener for me. I am surprised it didn't get more press when it was published because it certainly raises more than a few questions about the validity of standardized testing.

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Jan 04, 2010 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: parents

Eye-opening. This book is an entertaining, anecdotal look at the scoring and writing of "open ended" questions used in tests administrated at schools throughout the country. I enjoyed the writing style quite a lot...biting sarcasm. In the end the author convinced me (confirmation bias perhaps) that standardized testing is not the panacea that some believe and furthermore that they are being used in ways that they were never meant to be used.

If you have children in public schools and are at all...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Gwen marked it as to-read

Shelves: education, biography-memoir, falls-church

Source: Stumble Upon
Library: 371.262 Farley, MRSPL

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Jul 30, 2011 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

A real eye-opener for those of us who didn't have to be students at the mercy of the American standardized testing industry. The book was a little repetitive - lots of anecdotes about the author's experiences within the industry - but not countered quite enough by information about the for-profit industry and the issues surrounding it's increasing power on the lives of American school children.

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Jul 18, 2010 Domenique rated it 4 of 5 stars

A must read!!! I learned so much about standardized testing and the educational industry. As he tells the story of his ascent in corporate testing he shows you how completely screwed up the system is.

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Jun 05, 2011 Am rated it 4 of 5 stars

I consider it a must-read for teachers, administrators, and POLITICIANS.

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Jun 18, 2013 Megan added it

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir

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May 12, 2013 Theresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: education

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May 04, 2013 Roxanna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: good-books-for-teachers, education-issues

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Shelves: education

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