Synopses & Reviews
No sooner is a child walking and talking than the ABCs and 1-2-3s give way to the full-on alphabet soup: the ERBs, the OLSAT, the IQ, the NCLB for AYP, the IEP for ELLs, the CHAT and PDDST for ASD or LD and GandT or ADD and ADHD, the PSATs, then the ACTs and SATs all designed to assess and monitor a child's readiness for education. In many public schools, students are spending up to 28% of instructional time on testing and test prep.
Starting this year, the introduction of the Common Core State Standards Initiative in 45 states will bring an unprecedented level of new, more difficult, and longer mandatory tests to nearly every classroom in the nation up to five times a year forcing our national testing obsession to a crisis point. Taxpayers are spending extravagant money on these tests up to $1.4 billion per year and excessive tests are stunting children's spirits, adding stress to family life, and slowly killing our country's future competitiveness. Yet even so, we still want our kids to score off the charts on every test they take, in elementary school and beyond. And there will be a lot of them.
How do we preserve space for self-directed learning and development, while also asking our children to make the score and make a mark? This book is an exploration of that dilemma, and a strategy for how to solve it.
The Test explores all sides of this problem where these tests came from, why they're here to stay, and ultimately what you as a parent or teacher can do. It introduces a set of strategies borrowed from fields as diverse as games, neuroscience, social psychology, and ancient philosophy to help children do as well as they can on tests, and, just as important, how to use the experience of test-taking to do better in life. Like Paul Tough's bestseller How Children Succeed, it illuminates the emerging science of grit, curiosity and motivation, but takes a step further to explore innovations in education emerging solutions to the over-testing crisis that are not widely known but that you can adapt today, at home and at school. And it presents the stories of families of all kinds who are maneuvering within and beyond the existing educational system, playing and winning the testing game. You'll learn, for example, what Bill Gates, a strong public proponent of testing, does to stoke self-directed curiosity in his children, and how Mackenzie Bezos, wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and mother of three, creates individualized learning experiences for each of her children.
All parents want their children to be successful, and their schools to deliver true opportunities. Yet these goals are often as likely to result in stress and arguments as actual progress. The Test is a book to help us think about these problems, and ultimately, move our own children towards the future we want for them, from elementary to high school and beyond.
Review
and#147;Thorough research and illuminating interviews... With abundant data assembled in an accessible format, the book is a must-read for anyone in the educational system or any parent who has a child old enough to enter preschooland#133; An informative and enlightening appraisal of the regimented tests that American schoolchildren of all ages are subjected to taking on a regular basis.and#8221;and#151;
Kirkus Reviewand#147;High stakes testing in our public schools puts enormous pressure on everyone in the system. Using realand#151; and often quite movingand#151; stories, Anya Kamenetz shows teachers, parents, administrators, and students how to survive, even thrive, in an education system that many understandably believe needs a course correction.and#8221;and#151; Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell is Human
and#147;Anya Kamenetz's The Test is a fearless expose of how testing permeates our schools, our homes, even kids' psyches. People will be talking about this important, provocative book for years to come.and#8221;and#151; Ashley Merryman, co-author of NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children and Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing
and#147;A must-read. The Test is a vital contribution to the growing debate about how to evaluate our students, schools, and teachers. And Kamenetz offers invaluable guidance to the people so often caught in the middle: parents.and#8221;and#151; Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap and Creating Innovators
and#147;The Test is a brilliant, passionate, insightful, and useful look at Americaand#8217;s destructive obsession with high stakes testing. Anya Kamanetz yet again shows why she is one of Americaand#8217;s truly original thinkers on how we should be educating the next generationand#151; and how we are failing. If I still believed in grades after reading this book, Iand#8217;d give The Test an A+.and#8221;and#151; Cathy N. Davidson, author of Now You See It and Distinguished Professor and Director, The Futures Initiative
"[Kamenetz] digs deep into the business practices that govern current testing systems and policy...[she] offers several strategies to keep students balanced and calm while preparing for such exams.and#8221;and#151;Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
" The anti-testing] movement now has a guidebook. . . . Kamenetz shows how fundamentally American it would be to move toward a more holistic system." -New York Times Book Review The Test is an essential and critically acclaimed book for any parent confounded by our national obsession with standardized testing. It recounts the shocking history and tempestuous politics of testing and borrows strategies from fields as diverse as games, neuroscience, and ancient philosophy to help children cope. It presents the stories of families, teachers, and schools maneuvering within and beyond the existing educational system, playing and winning the testing game. And it points the way toward a hopeful future of better tests and happier kids.
Synopsis
Standardized assessments test our children, our teachers, our schools and increasingly, our patience.
Your child is more than a score. But in the last twenty years, schools have dramatically increased standardized testing, sacrificing hours of classroom time. What is the cost to students, teachers, and families? How do we preserve space for self-directed learning and development especially when we still want all children to hit the mark?
The Test explores all sides of this problem where these tests came from, their limitations and flaws, and ultimately what parents, teachers, and concerned citizens can do. It recounts the shocking history and tempestuous politics of testing and borrows strategies from fields as diverse as games, neuroscience, and ancient philosophy to help children cope. It presents the stories of families, teachers, and schools maneuvering within and beyond the existing educational system, playing and winning the testing game. And it offers a glimpse into a future of better tests. With an expert's depth, a writer's flair, and a hacker's creativity, Anya Kamenetz has written an essential book for any parent who has wondered: what do I do about all these tests?
About the Author
Anya Kamenetz is an author, a journalist, and a nationally sought-after speaker and commentator on the future of education. She is a contributing writer for Fast Company, has a nationally syndicated column with Tribune Media, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN.com, Slate, Newsweek, "O": The Oprah Magazine, and a wide variety of other publications. She is also the author of two books, Generation Debt and DIY U. She has won two national awards from the Education Writers Association and produced an education ebook, The Edupunks' Guide to a DIY Credential, in partnership with the Gates Foundation. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.