Standardized Testing, Politics, and Complexity Theory

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Standards, Difference, and Competence: Boundaries and Borders in Contemporary Curriculum Studies

Abstract

This paper is framed using Foucauldian theory, and metaphorical analysis. It looks at how a metaphorical link between standardized testing and laboratory science is used in public discourse to create the illusion that "our public schools are failing." It critiques these assumptions through an analysis of policy documents, and suggests complexity theory as a better lens for understanding testing and education.

Authors

• Theodora A. Lightfoot, IISSE

• Ruth L. Peach, University of Wisconsin - Madison