Meritocracy 2.0: High-Stakes, Standardized Testing as a Racial Project of Neoliberal Multiculturalism. (January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Au, Wayne
• Other Names: Dumas Michael J. guest-editor.; Dixson Adrienne D. guest-editor.; Mayorga Edwin guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Educational policy. Volume 30:Number 1(2016:Jan.)
• Page Start: 39
• Page End: 62
• Publication Date: 2016-01
• Subjects: education reform -- standardized testing -- high-stakes accountability -- urban schools -- politics of education -- social justice; Education and state -- United States -- Periodicals; Education -- Periodicals; 379.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0895904815614916
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0895-9048

Abstract

High-stakes, standardized testing is regularly used within in accountability narratives as a tool for achieving racial equality in schools. Using the frameworks of "racial projects" and "neoliberal multiculturalism, " and drawing on historical and empirical research, this article argues that not only does high-stakes, standardized testing serve to further racial inequality in education, it does so under the guise of forms of anti-racism that have been reconstituted as part of a larger neoliberal project for education reform. This mix of neoliberalism, high-stakes testing, and official anti-racisms that are used to deny structural, racialized inequalities are a manifestation of what the author calls, "Meritocracy 2.0."