Unequal by design: High-stakes testing and the standardization of inequality.

摘要

Drawing on critical educational theory, in this dissertation the author analyzes the ways in which high-stakes testing contributes to the production and reproduction of social and economic inequalities in education. The author begins with an analysis of the historical origins of high-stakes tests, including their ideological and functional links to the eugenics movement and the structuring of schools around models of factory-like capitalist production. Then, the author follows with an analysis of how these origins manifest in contemporary educational ideologies, structures, and policies, including the No Child Left Behind legislation.;Using the methodology of qualitative metasynthesis, the author then offers an empirical study of the ways in which high-stakes testing controls the curriculum, and argues that such control leads to increased educational inequality. Subsequently, employing the critical sociological analysis the author argues that, through the curricular control exerted by high-stakes tests, the social construction of knowledge and knowledge forms contained within high-stakes tests inherently structure unequal outcomes into the systems of testing themselves. Finally, based on the analysis completed in this dissertation, the author argues that, because the educational outcomes associated with high-stakes tests are thus unequal by design, the system of education can also be made equal by design through human intervention.