Making a Grade: Victorian Examinations and the Rise of Standardized Testing

Description

Starting in the 1850s achievement tests became standardized in the British Isles, and were administered on an industrial scale. By the end of the century more than two million people had written mass exams, particularly in science, technology, and mathematics. Some candidates responded to this standardization by cramming or cheating; others embraced the hope that such tests rewarded not only knowledge but also merit. Written with humour, Making a Grade looks at how standardized testing practices quietly appeared, and then spread worldwide. This book situates mass exams, marks, and credentials in an emerging paper-based meritocracy, arguing that such exams often first appeared as "cameras" to neutrally record achievement, and then became "engines" to change education as people tailored their behaviour to fit these tests. Taking the perspectives of both examiners and examinees, Making a Grade claims that our own culture’s desire for accountability through objective testing has a long history. Cover Half Title Page Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction Agency Examination Jacobinism Examinations, “Meritocracy,” and Abstractions Definitions Relevant Questions Organization of the Book Part One: Examinations 1 “The Age of Examinations”: A Historical Sketch Education, or Schooling? Some Exam Systems Trinity College Dublin and Oxford East India College, Haileybury Various Military Academies Examinations of Aspiring Medics (Apothecaries, Surgeons, Physicians) London University – University of London (University College and King’s College) The Education Department (Committee of the Privy Council on Education) before the 1862 Revised Code Exams in the British Isles: 1858 Exam Systems Spread Overseas “An Adopted Chinese Culture” 2 Monetizing Marks: The Political Economy of Examinations Montagues and Capulets “Teaching Is a Drudgery” Legibility and Elasticity Invisible Hands 3 An Epistemology of the Mundane: Dissecting One Examination Preparing the DSA exam Entering the House of Catechisms Securing Uniformity Common Knowledge Part Two: Examiners 4 Daguerreotypes of the Mind: Paper, Partition, and Specialization Viva Voce Exams Partition Mechanization 5 Machining Minds: Commensuration, Tabulation, and Standardization Standards Commensurability and Categorization Standardization Quantification Tabulated Poetry 6 Thin Descriptions: Credentials and Other Signals Saving the Labour of Verification Fallacies of Indiscriminate Laudation Examiners as Anti-Anthropologists Public Opinion, Reactivity, and Looping Part Three: Examinees 7 Learning and Earning: Coaching, Cramming, and Arms Races Self-Help Knowledge as Food, or Bricks? Free Traders in Education Learning and Earning 8 Immoral Economies: How to Cheat on a Victorian Exam Certification and Collusion Cribbing and Copying “Reduced to a System” 9 Economies, Remoralized: Examinations as Technologies of Inclusion Surveys Wedges Trials Sousveillance? Conclusion Appendix A: Important Dates Appendix B: Biographical List Notes Bibliography Index