Where exactly did high-stakes testing come from anyway? Neither parents, teachers, administrators, nor school boards demanded it, and now many communities feel powerless to reverse its appalling effect on our schools.
Hot on the heels of the testing masterminds and peeling back layer upon layer of documentation, Kathy Emery and Susan Ohanian found a familiar scent at the end of the paper trail. Corporate money. CEOs and American big business have blanketed United States public education officials with their influence and, as Emery and Ohanian prove, their fifteen year drive to undemocratize public education has yielded a many-tentacled private-public monster.
With stunning clarity and meticulous research, Emery and Ohanian take you on a tour of board rooms, rightist think tanks, nonprofit concerned citizens groups, and governmental agencies to expose the real story of how current education reform arose, how its deceptive rhetoric belies its goals, and the true nature of its polarizing and disenfranchising mission.
Why is corporate America bashing our schools? Because it's in their interestsnot yours. What can you do to promote your best educational interests? Read this expose and get ready to dismantle the education-reform machine.
About the Author: Kathy Emery has taught high school history for sixteen years, has a Ph.D. in education from the University of California Davis, and is currently working with Teachers for Social Justice and the San Francisco Organizing Project. Her dissertation on which this book was based can be found at www.educationanddemocracy.org.
Susan Ohanian is a longtime teacher and free-lance writer whose articles have appeared in periodicals ranging from the Atlantic and Washington Monthly to Phi Delta Kappan and Education Week. Visit www.susanohanian.org for a wealth of information on education issues and to learn more about Susan Ohanian. You'll find commentary, cartoons, letters, resources, quotes and a word of the day offering children a provocative way to increase their vocabulary. Her email address is: susano@gmavt.net.
