Defying Standardization: Creating Curriculum for an Uncertain Future

Defying Standardization pierces the veil of misinformation surrounding the push to standardize the curriculum expectations for 56 million public school children. It provides a high energy, passionate, and, well-researched argument of what curriculum should and can be to facilitate the development of unstandardized skills and dispositions necessary for a globally connected society. Defying Standardization dismantles the myths and lies surrounding international test rankings and demonstrates that there is no relationship to economic indicators or skills that drives the innovation economy. The book provides practical examples for how educators, students, and parents can defy standardization with locally developed, evidence-informed, and globally literate practices to facilitate the development of customized curricula. This book is for those who yearn for a vibrant, innovative, and creative school system in which all students are provided opportunities to pursue their passions and interests in ways that will prepare them to be well-rounded individuals and democratic citizens in a global community.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Preface Acknowledgments Part I: The Flaws of Standardization Chapter 1: One for All Chapter 2: The Competitiveness Hoax Chapter 3: Global Dominance Chapter 4: Fatally Flawed Foundations Part II: Defying Standardization: Translating Theory into Practice Chapter 5: Less Standardized for the Future Chapter 6: Unstandardized Beginnings: Theory into Action Chapter 7: Structure for the Long Term

About the Author :
Christopher Tienken is an associate professor of education leadership, management, and policy. His other books include The School Reform Landscape: Fraud, Myth, and Lies and Education Policy Perils: Tackling the Tough Issues. Follow him on Twitter @christienken.

Review :
If the standardized education reform industry is the Goliath of our times, then Christopher Tienken is our David. Tienken fearlessly dissects the flawed arguments that undergird the destructive standardization regimen engulfing public schools and de-humanizing teaching and learning. This book is a must read for those teachers, administrators, board members, legislators and parents who have searched for ways to rebut the argument that standardized curricula and assessments are the antidote for failing schools. Defying Standardization is the critical turning point to restoring sanity and humanity in public education. This is a brilliant critique of the crippling and stifling effects of mass standardization, promoted and enforced by non- educators in the effort to improve the "efficiency" of our public school system. Tienken shows how this trend is killing the curiosity, creativity and innovative thinking that are the purported goals of standardization programs, and yet it is rooted in outmoded theories if essentialism and Taylorism of past eras. According to President John Adams, ‘Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.’ Tienken uses facts to systematically dismantle the basic premises of standardized education. His well-researched work y exposes the flaws upon which the current education reform movement rests and provides practical strategies for defying standardized practices in K-12 education. This is a must read if you care about quality curriculum and a vibrant public education system in the United States.