Abstract
This chapter employs several Marxist concepts to explore the role of high-stakes, standardized tests within capitalist-oriented reforms and policies in the United States. Starting with a materialist history of the rise of standardized testing within the context of capitalist schooling, this chapter then moves on to analyze the role of testing in the quantification of students, teaching, and learning for use within systems of educational policy built around quasi-free markets. This chapter then argues that, instead of measuring teaching and learning, modern-day high-stakes standardized tests actually measure what Marx referred to as socially necessary labor time. The conclusion of this chapter briefly discusses resistance to high-stakes, standardized testing and offers some suggestions for alternative assessments.
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Au, W. (2023). Commodification, the Violence of Abstraction, and Socially Necessary Labor Time: A Marxist Analysis of High-Stakes Testing and Capitalist Education in the United States. In: Hall, R., Accioly, I., Szadkowski, K. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Marxism and Education. Marxism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37252-0_12
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