Bill,
Thanks for the clarification. I am also curious if the class breakdown says
any thing interesting about this relationship. It seems to me the dialectic
is qualitatively different if one is going to a school that is predominately
"working class" or "middle class". The latter tend to be interesting
programs while the former *Dicipline and Punish* comes to mind.
So, I agree the testing has facilitated systematic change, but that change
from schools I have been in makes Oliver Twist more relevent today than
ever.
So, the dialectic does seem interesting indeed. Gee has some interesting
stuff on this on how what is really happening is training the working class
and minorities for one aspect of the economy (although saving a few along
the way as in metco) and the middleclass for another.
Rose (1999) from the political standpoint has a nice discussion about the
role of numbers from a governing perspective which you expressed nicely in
your post. His general argument is it creates fear (similar to crime) in
which it becomes a circular movement of more and more testing.
Nate
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