ABSTRACT
Focusing on the experiences of children in their final year of primary school in England, this chapter considers how standardized assessment shapes curriculum and pedagogy and supports the formation of stratified neoliberal student subjectivities, both broadly and specifically in relation to reading. This account is linked to the findings of an empirical study of 11-year-old students’ experiences of national standardized assessment tests in reading. In all, 36 students – six students in each of six schools – were interviewed in boy – girl student pairs. These pairs were chosen as low-, middle-, and high-attaining students by their teachers. The analysis indicates that reading confidently affirms high-attaining students’ beliefs about themselves and their place in the world and that theirs is a craft relationship to reading. However, low-attaining students are alienated from reading. Hence, it is argued that approaches invoked to improve student test performances will neither help raise the grades of those identified as low attaining beyond the mediocre nor have a positive impact on their reading outside of the tests.
