standards, standardization and accountability in the United States

Over the last several decades, education in the United States has undergone a profound transformation as control over schools shifted first to the state and then the federal government. In the not so distant past, students attended the school to which they were assigned, learned from teachers who used and adapted the school’s and district’s curriculum, and were evaluated based on teacher prepared assignments. Now, students often ostensibly choose which school to attend (although advantaged students have significantly more choices than others), and learn from teachers who teach what they think will be on the state’s standardized tests. These changes reflect policymakers’ greater faith in markets and competition than in teachers and students. However, data from the United States show that rather than improving education, the reforms have harmed academic achievement and increased educational inequality (see Hursh, 2008). These reforms have come about, in part, because of neoliberal efforts to apply neoliberal principles to all social services, including education. Neoliberals promote the deregulation of the economy, trade liberalization, the dismantling of the public sector and the predominance of the finance economy over production and welfare. Neoliberal