High Stakes Testing & Future of Public Education Lecture at Nazareth, March 31

ROCHESTER, NY (03/09/2010)(readMedia)-- The increased use of standardized testing raises many questions in the minds of parents, teachers and professionals about why so many tests are necessary. Nazareth College is proud to present a free and open to the public lecture by Mark Garrison called, Setting Standards for Who Decides: High Stakes Testing and the Future of Public Education. The talk is Wednesday, March 31 from 7– 9 p.m., in the Medaille Formal Lounge on the Nazareth College campus. Nazareth College is located at 4245 East Ave., Rochester, N.Y. 14618. For more information, contact Shawgi Tell in the School of Education at (585) 389-2623.

Never before in the United States has testing played such a significant role in schooling. And despite popular and professional opposition to high-stakes testing, it continues unabated. While policy experts, educators, and politicians debate the merits of test-based accountability (such as merit-pay for teachers and administrators, and even offering financial rewards to students for improved test scores) few have stopped to ask: why such an emphasis on testing?

In response to this issue, Garrison's interactive talk will highlight the little-known history of standardized tests and his belief that testing is not mainly about improving education, but about controlling the purpose and nature of schooling. Through his discussion he will expose the political origins of the present test craze and challenge listeners to question their own beliefs about public education, opportunity and inequality. His goal is to reorient how education reform is discussed. By doing this he will connect the major components of the Obama education plan to the restructuring of the governance and future of public education in the United States.

Mark Garrison, associate professor of Educational Leadership and director of doctoral programs at D'Youville College, has worked in higher education as a researcher, instructor and administrator for over fifteen years. His research interests include study of the public/private distinction in education law and policy, educational assessment and testing, and market-based education reforms. He is the author of A Measure of Failure: The Political Origins of Standardized Testing, published by SUNY Press in 2009.

Founded in 1924, Nazareth College is a coeducational college with undergraduate and graduate studies in the liberal arts and sciences and professional programs in health and human services, education, and management. The College is located on 150 scenic acres near Rochester, New York, and currently enrolls approximately 2,000 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students. Nazareth has a strong commitment to experience-based learning and civic engagement. In the past decade, Nazareth has produced 18 Fulbright recipients and two Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowships. For more information on the College, visit www.naz.edu.

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