Kill the Messenger: The War on Standardized Testing

In response to public demand, new federal legislation requires testing of most students in the United States in reading and mathematics, for grades three through eight. In much of the country, this new order promotes an increase in the amount of standardized testing. Many educators, parents, and policymakers who have paid little attention to testing policy issues in the past will now do so. They deserve to have better information on the topic than has generally been available, and Kill the Messenger is intended to fill this gap. Kill the Messenger is perhaps the most thorough and authoritative work in defense of educational testing ever written. Phelps points out that much research conducted by education insiders on the topic is based on ideological preference or profound self-interest. It is not surprising that they arrive at emphatically anti-testing conclusions. He notes that "external" and "high stakes" testing in particular attracts a cornucopia of invective. Much, if not most, of this hostile research is passed on to the public by journalists as if it were neutral, objective, and independent. Kill the Messenger describes the current debate, the players, their interests, and their positions. It explains and refutes many of the common criticisms of testing. It describes testing opponents' strategies, through case studies of Texas and the SAT. It illustrates the profound media bias against testing. It acknowledges testing's limitations, and suggests how it can be improved. It defends testing by comparing it with its alternatives. And finally, it outlines the consequences for America of losing the "war on standardized testing."

About the Author :
Richard P. Phelps has devoted most of his working life to the world of education. His research work on testing has been published in Evaluation Review, The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, Educational and Psychological Measurement, among others. Herbert J. Walberg, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education, is a University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago and chairman of the board of directors of the Heartland Institute in Chicago. J. E. Stone is the founder and moderator of the Education Consumers ClearingHouse, and a professor of education at East Tennessee State University.

Review :
-Using war metaphors throughout, Phelps offers a vigorous defense of high stakes standardized testing. With an educational viewpoint shaped by socially and economically conservative ideologies, he discusses the nature of the battle between testing advocates and opponents, the strategies of those attempting to undermine testing initiatives, the various -campaigns- against testing, and the media, which he feels are biased.- --D. K. Kaufman, Choice -[A]n embattled book. Incensed by the partisan tactics of anti-testing groups, Phelps deliberately goes to great lengths to expound and analyze the differing points of view, helped by scrupulous and scholarly documentation and a robustly empirical approach.- --Martin Turner, Intelligence -With standardized testing prominently featured in the No Child Left Behind Act, Kill the Messenger should be required reading. Our children deserve it!- --Charlene K. Harr, author of The Politics of the PTA "Using war metaphors throughout, Phelps offers a vigorous defense of high stakes standardized testing. With an educational viewpoint shaped by socially and economically conservative ideologies, he discusses the nature of the battle between testing advocates and opponents, the strategies of those attempting to undermine testing initiatives, the various "campaigns" against testing, and the media, which he feels are biased." --D. K. Kaufman, Choice "[A]n embattled book. Incensed by the partisan tactics of anti-testing groups, Phelps deliberately goes to great lengths to expound and analyze the differing points of view, helped by scrupulous and scholarly documentation and a robustly empirical approach." --Martin Turner, Intelligence "With standardized testing prominently featured in the No Child Left Behind Act, Kill the Messenger should be required reading. Our children deserve it!" --Charlene K. Harr, author of The Politics of the PTA "Using war metaphors throughout, Phelps offers a vigorous defense of high stakes standardized testing. With an educational viewpoint shaped by socially and economically conservative ideologies, he discusses the nature of the battle between testing advocates and opponents, the strategies of those attempting to undermine testing initiatives, the various "campaigns" against testing, and the media, which he feels are biased." --D. K. Kaufman, Choice "[A]n embattled book. Incensed by the partisan tactics of anti-testing groups, Phelps deliberately goes to great lengths to expound and analyze the differing points of view, helped by scrupulous and scholarly documentation and a robustly empirical approach." --Martin Turner, "Intelligence" "With standardized testing prominently featured in the No Child Left Behind Act, "Kill the Messenger" should be required reading. Our children deserve it!" --Charlene K. Harr, author of "The Politics of the PTA"