Testing Controversy

Using governmental publications, the popular press, and professional education journals as sources, Phillips (Syracuse U.) explores the rhetoric surrounding educational testing in the United States from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. Not taking a position on the actual debate that spawned all the rhetoric, Phillips prefers instead to analyze the impact of the terminologies chosen for the debate upon the practice and practitioners of education. The scientific rhetoric employed, he argues, had a major impact on people's understandings of education and, hence, in practice. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)