Choice Review
Farley shares his firsthand experiences of working in various facets of the standardized testing industry in Making the Grades, a disturbing report on the people and process behind the grading of high-stakes exams. Written in an easily accessible narrative form, this book is extremely engaging and provocative as it describes specific examples of scoring incidents, allowing the reader a window into the realities of this so-called "standardized" process. By revealing the lack of experience of many of those hired graders (who could not find jobs elsewhere), the manipulation of rubrics, and inconsistencies of scoring behind the scenes, Farley calls into question the reliability and validity of the tests results that so strongly affect students, teachers, and communities. Readers are reminded that standardized test scores that are given after a cursory glance for keywords indicate very little about the abilities of children. As schools and students continue to be held highly accountable to these scores, this important volume warns teachers and policy makers of the dangers of giving control to a money-making industry that values expediency and profit over quality of work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. A. L. Hsu State University of New York College at Old Westbury
Library Journal Review
Farley worked in several different positions for two different standardized testing companies and details his rise from lowly grad student toiling away for low wages and no benefits in his first scoring job to being a highly paid independent consultant to the testing industry, all in a casual, humorous style, poking fun at himself as well as the process. In particular, he focuses on test scorers, hired because the tests' open-ended questions cannot be scored by computer. The bulk of the book is a disturbing glimpse into an industry that has a huge impact on the lives of K-12 students across the United States. However, Farley's assertion that he is the "sworn enemy" of standardized testing smacks of the righteousness of the recently converted (he was acting as a consultant in the industry as recently as 2007). VERDICT Of interest to those looking to fuel their opposition to the No Child Left Behind act, which relies upon standardized test scores as its measure of success for schools to gain federal funds, and to anyone wanting a detailed account of this country's standardized test scoring process.-Sara Holder, McGill Univ. Lib., Montreal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
![Cover image for Making the grades [electronic resource] : my misadventures in the standardized testing industry / Todd S. Farley.](/client/assets/5.1326/ctx//client/images/no_image.png "Cover image for Making the grades [electronic resource] : my misadventures in the standardized testing industry / Todd S. Farley.")