ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the implementation of state-wide testing is top-down routine surveillance; at Achievement Academy, the actual institutional practices—strategically employed to prepare staff and students for the test—structure subjectivities around notions of success and failure. It also explores how the Network leadership, the chief executive officer (CEO), and the H-West Principal position a conception of motivation and achievement in order to inspire teachers to drive their students to perform well on standardized assessment. Test Prep season, as a culminating event, requires a formal Network-wide launch alongside the reassertion of the principles, the ethos, of Achievement Academy's institutional culture. The scholars who have left Achievement Academy are represented as lacking resilience and determination, and they are othered for not taking advantage of opportunities. The Test Prep Rally, as a culmination of weeks of intense work, represents a moment where academic success is celebrated and the institutional model of Achievement Academy is further rationalized.
