High-Stakes Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning: The Real Crisis in Education

by David Hursh

This book examines the changes in educational policy in the U.S. and Britain over the last twenty-five years. Hursh argues that education in the States and Britain has been radically transformed, first through efforts to create curricular standards, more recently through an emphasis on accountability measured by standardized tests, and currently, efforts to introduce market competition and private services into educational systems. Hursh offers an alternative to the neoliberal conception of society and education complete with examples of parents who reject the current emphasis on individual success and schools that promote civic-mindedness.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 2008

About the author

Associate professor in teaching and curriculum at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester. His recent publications and political efforts focus on the relationship between neoliberal economic and education policies. Since 1999, he has been on the steering committee of the Coalition for Common Sense in Education, a group working to repeal high-stakes testing.
His most recent book is High Stakes Testing and the Decline of Teaching and Learning: The Real Crisis in Education (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008).

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Hursh is a well renown educator who teaches at the Warner School at the University of Rochester. Published in 2007, this book is still very accurate in its telling of how the wave on Neoliberalism swept the country in the form of Globalization. Globalization was used as an excuse to give corporations and political elites to decry the size of government and reduce resources for society. Many programs that the government had to help the disadvantaged were cut and jobs that were unionized were moved overseas. Public schools have been taken down by using the excuse of "school choice", equality through high state's testing and standards that brought poor community schools down. Schools in poor communities can be closed, and privatized charter schools could be created with public money. Public housing torn down and replaced by "mixed income" housing allowing gentrification to begin. Hursh has s very good chapter on how Chicago has been used to create an even stronger two tired city. It amazes me that this was written during the Bush Administration and Barack Obama as president and Rahm Emmanuel as Mayor continued these policies that have continued to harm Chicago and the nation's schools. This book is so relevant today, I really appreciated reading it. Highly recommended.

[Synthia Salomon, Ed.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this and took Dr. Hursh’s class in 2008. I learned a lot about neoliberalism, Dewey, NCLB, Freire +.
We studied works from Sneden, Bobbitt, and analyzed local and national statistics.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book that looked at changes in educational policy and discusses changes as radical. David thoroughly discusses neoliberalism and the neoliberal conception of education.

I had Hursh as a professor and though the book was good it didn't compare to hearing him discuss the issues and discuss neoliberalism.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neoliberalism's (individualism, democracy as consumerism, profit above all else) impact on American schools. A good reminder of what schools should be and why Canadians shouldn't follow in American footsteps.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is extremely opinionated, but it has a lot of good information and helps me to understand practical application of progressive ideas in education.

[Terri Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very political read. It made a connection for me and my capstone, so it made me think.