Foreword

'The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.' Aristotle [1]

   Should the state through federal and state education laws and policy mandates and/or the local public school district in its policies and practices encourage, even mandate discrimination in favor of some of the students while at the same time denying other students the pursuing of their educational dreams and desires?  Is there any doubt that the answer to that question has to be a resounding NO!  Lamentably, the state through its public schools does indeed discriminate against the most innocent of society, the children.

   And much like discrimination by gender, race or disability of the past authorized by the state through its laws, policies and practices which have been adjudicated to not be constitutionally acceptable, the current discrimination against many students in the realm of mental abilities through the educational standards and standardized testing malpractice regime has to be eventually judged to be unconstitutional in order to eliminate that harm.

   Not only are those practices of dubious constitutional validity but the errors, falsehoods and psychometric 'fudging' forming the basis of said practices render any results "vain and illusory". [2]   Invalid, illogical, unjust, unethical are just a few of the descriptions one can accurately use to describe the standards and testing regime. [3]

Currently there are many who believe they are knowledgeable about the teaching and learning process and who tell the professional teacher what supposedly should be done to repair what they perceive as the shortcomings of American public education, even though those perceptions are grounded more in ideology than reality.  These vicious attacks on public education have been building since the 1980s with the publication of the "A Nation at Risk" which foretold the doom of American world supremacy if the public education system wasn't fixed to the authors' liking.  Ever since there has been a steady litany of what I call "edudeformer" [4] and "privateer" critiques made by many who purport to be experts, who most certainly aren't, who have little to no public school teaching experience in the teaching and learning processes that occur on a daily basis in classrooms around the country.

   The two main educational practices espoused by those seeking to destroy and privatize American public education [5] are:  to use national educational standards and standardized tests based on those standards to supposedly measure student achievement and by extension evaluate teacher and school effectiveness.  This book will show how the using of the error and falsehood filled standards and testing process gives rise to completely invalid results that cause harm to students and teachers, violating their personhood through a lack of fidelity to truth in unethical educational practices.  Also, the harm caused is unjust in light of the fundamental purpose of public education in the United States.

   It's said that the good teachers make it look easy.  We've all had good teachers and, unfortunately, maybe one or two who left a bit to be desired in their pedagogical skills.  Good teachers have a thorough knowledge of their subject matter or grade level.  But not only do they have that knowledge but also the ability to take complex concepts, breaking the content apart into fairly easily digestible, and thereby learnable, morsels of food for thought.

   My hope in writing this book is to expose these educational malpractices for what they are.  In doing so I hope that I will have been a good teacher.  Time will tell.  I seek to clarify for the reader by explaining and simplifying the complex and contentious issues of the fundamental purpose of public education, professional education ethics, and justice concerns.  Also I will identify "infidelity to truth" in the misuse and abuse of the meaning and usages of the terms standards and measurement and the multitude of conceptual and practical errors of the standards and testing regime in order to illustrate just how destructive those two practices are to a true, just and ethical teaching and learning process.

   In writing this book I have relied heavily on concepts developed in three writings (among many, many others) that I believe all public school educators should read and understand:  foremost, the most important educational writing of the last 50 years, Noel Wilson's "Educational Standards and the Problem of Error", Andre Comte-Sponville's "A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues", and Simon Blackburn's "Truth: A Guide".  Time for all educators and any others concerned with the teaching and learning process to begin reading, eh!

Note:  All editorial control is with the author.  Any errors and mistakes should be rightly attributed to the author.

[1] All heading quotes except the conclusion's are from:  http://www.brainyquote.com/

[2] As noted by Noel Wilson in his review of "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing"-the testing "bible" of the standards and testing movement.

[3] When I speak of standardized testing I am referring to those standardized tests which students have to take.  I am not referring to diagnostic tests used to ascertain disability or degree of disability.  (Although they too suffer the same onto-epistemological errors and falsehoods in construction, that is for another day.)

[4] Edudeformer = hubristic ignorant denouncers of public education who have little to no experience in the classroom and schools which they believe they have the right to "fix".

[5] See Diane Ravitch's "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools"