ABSTRACT
High-stakes testing, accountability, and increased assessments in U.S. schools have created new challenges for school administrators, teachers, families, and students (Nichols & Berliner, 2007). With the advent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), high-stakes tests (standardized tests with stakes attached to them) were implemented in U.S. schools in a business model fashion, and it was argued that such tests would lead to increased efficiency as well as provide schools with the data needed for improvement (Ravitch, 2009). NCLB, though, has been met with much criticism since its inception, and many scholars (e.g., Au, 2007, 2009; Hursh, 2007) claim that one cannot understand the effects of NCLB, the rise of high-stakes testing, and increased school accountability without situating them within the context of neoliberalism.
