Across our country educational policies and practices are killing our students' desire to learn and teachers' passion to teach. The central theme of this book is that high-stakes testing is having a critically deleterious effect on our students. The fallout impacts parents, teachers, schools, districts and states. Horace 'Rog' Lucido uses language and supporting evidence that is clear and relatable to the reader. Rarely is the topic of teacher care and concern for students ever embedded in works on educational theory and practice, but here it is championed as the driving force for change, exposing the causes and chronicling the effects of educational malfeasance.

"Lucido (Assessment Reform Network) challenges the notion of standardized testing in schools, warning of the danger of basing educational accountability on superficial test scores. Using research-based evidence, as well as firsthand experience in the form of personal narratives that are easily accessible to his readers, he strongly criticizes the industrial model of schooling and cautions that the educational system is being pushed in the wrong direction as it stifles students' creativity and imagination by focusing on test preparation. Lucido's voice and passion shine through in the numerous examples he uses to illustrate the narrowing of curriculum and the way teaching has been redefined by the extreme concentration on high-stakes testing. Lucido reminds readers that education should be a forgiving process of pushing students to think and achieve; he explains that teaching should be analogous to coaching. His comprehensive knowledge of the literature on testing, as well as extensive experience working with students, is evident, and his presentation of alternative approaches to assessing students' learning makes this book a must read for teachers, administrators, teacher-educators, and even parents. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections." - CHOICE