ABSTRACT
This chapter argues in Ideology and Curriculum and Official Knowledge, the decision to define some groups' knowledge as the most legitimate, as official, while other groups' knowledge hardly sees the light of day, says something extremely important about who has power in a society. It intends to instantiate the arguments through an analysis of the proposals for a national curriculum and national testing. The chapter aims to argue that behind the educational justification for a national curriculum and national testing is a dangerous ideological attack, the effects of which will be truly damaging to those who already have the most to lose. It analyzes the general project of the rightist agenda. The chapter shows the connections between the national curriculum and national testing and the increasing focus on privatization and "choice" plans. It explains that the politics of official knowledge—in the case surrounding proposals for a national curriculum and for national testing—cannot be fully understood in an isolated way.
