Standardized Minds: The High Price of America’s Testing Culture and What We Can Do About It by Peter Sacks soon to be presented for sale on the fantastic BookLovers of Bath web site!
Published: Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1999, Hardback in dust wrapper.
From the cover: Standardized testing: its an innocuous sounding term, isnt it? Straightforward, inexpensive, tidy, fair. Americans have grown so accustomed to taking multiple choice tests that we dont bother to question their legitimacy. Weve been told time and again that standardized tests arent perfect but that theyre the best tool we have to make important decisions about school children, college applicants and prospective employees. Is this really true? What are the flaws of such testing? Why is your fathers occupation a better predictor of SAT scores than virtually any other factor? Whose interests do these tests serve? Why do the gatekeepers of Americas meritocracy emphasize potential over actual accomplishment? And, most importantly, what can we do to more fairly assess ourselves and realistically hold each other accountable to standards at all levels of schools and in the workplace?
Standardized Minds dramatically shows how our unhealthy and enduring obsession with intelligence testing affects us all, from the day we enter kindergarten to when we might apply for a job or seek a new profession. Drawing creative solutions from the headlines and the frontlines, Sacks demonstrates proven alternatives to such testing and details a plan to make the American meritocracy legitimate and fair.
Very Good in Very Good Dust Wrapper.
Black Spine Strip on Yellow boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. [XII] 351 pages. Index. Bibliography. 9½” x 6¼”.
Of course, if you don’t like this one, may I tempt you with something from my Education catalogue?
BookLovers of Bath 