Teaching by Numbers: Deconstructing the Discourse of Standards and Accountability in Education » (New Edition)

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Peter Taubman is Associate Professor of Education in the School of Education at Brooklyn College, where he teaches graduate courses in education and English.

Over the last decade the transformation in the field of education that is occurring under the twin banners of "standards" and "accountability" has materially affected every aspect of schooling, teaching, and teacher education in the United States. Teaching By Numbers, offers interdisciplinary ways to understand the educational reforms underway in urban education, teaching, and teacher education, and their impact on what it means to teach. Peter Taubman maps the totality of the transformation and takes into account the constellation of forces shaping it. Going further, he proposes an alternative vision of teacher education and argues why such a program would better address the concerns of well-intentioned educators who have surrendered to various reforms efforts. Illuminating and timely, this volume is essential reading for researchers, students, and professionals across the fields of urban education, curriculum theory, social foundations, educational policy, and teacher education.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

1 Introduction 1

2 The Current State of Affairs 8

3 Tests 17

4 The Language of Educational Policy 55

5 Audit Culture: Standards and the Practices of Accountability 88

6 The Seduction of a Profession 127

7 Intellectual Capital: How the Learning Sciences Led Education Astray 158

Conclusion 196

Bibliography 202

Index 223