The Test

“The [anti-testing] movement now has a guidebook… It’s publication could hardly have been better timed… to characterize it as simply a polemic would be to overlook the sophistication of Kamenetz’s thinking… The book’s most urgent contribution is its exploration of how we might hold our schools, teachers and students accountable if we were to scrap high stakes standardized testing entirely. As in her previous book, DIY U, Kamenetz is open to seemingly radical, technology-driven solutions.” –New York Times Book Review “Thorough research and illuminating interviews… With abundant data assembled in an accessible format, the book is a must-read for anyone in the educational system or any parent who has a child old enough to enter preschool… An informative and enlightening appraisal of the regimented tests that American schoolchildren of all ages are subjected to taking on a regular basis.”–Kirkus Review “High stakes testing in our public schools puts enormous pressure on everyone in the system. Using real– and often quite moving– stories, Anya Kamenetz shows teachers, parents, administrators, and students how to survive, even thrive, in an education system that many understandably believe needs a course correction.”– Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell is Human “Anya Kamenetz’s The Test is a fearless expose of how testing permeates our schools, our homes, even kids’ psyches. People will be talking about this important, provocative book for years to come.”– Ashley Merryman, co-author of NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children and Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing “A must-read. The Test is a vital contribution to the growing debate about how to evaluate our students, schools, and teachers. And Kamenetz offers invaluable guidance to the people so often caught in the middle: parents.”– Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap and Creating Innovators “The Test is a brilliant, passionate, insightful, and useful look at America’s destructive obsession with high stakes testing. Anya Kamanetz yet again shows why she is one of America’s truly original thinkers on how we should be educating the next generation– and how we are failing. If I still believed in grades after reading this book, I’d give The Test an A+.”– Cathy N. Davidson, author of Now You See It and Distinguished Professor and Director, The Futures Initiative

Anya Kamenetz is an author, a journalist, and a nationally sought-after speaker and commentator on the future of education. She is a contributing writer for Fast Company, has a nationally syndicated column with Tribune Media, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN.com, Slate, Newsweek, “O”: The Oprah Magazine, and a wide variety of other publications. She is also the author of two books, Generation Debt and DIY U. She has won two national awards from the Education Writers Association and produced an education ebook, The Edupunks’ Guide to a DIY Credential, in partnership with the Gates Foundation. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.