Intercambio No. 14

PUBLIC EDUCATION:

A SOCIAL RIGHT FACES THE OBSESSION WITH TESTING

INTRODUCTION

We are going through a time in which standardization is intensifying on a global scale. Evaluation as a mechanism of control and a tool of privatization plays a central role in determining public policies and has become one of the fundamental components of educational reforms which, far from improving school conditions, have impoverished the course of public education and the teaching profession.

In this context, critical reflection by our organizations becomes more and more necessary, and gives new meaning to resistances seeking alternative forms of assessment that meet the public education needs of our peoples.

The contents of this issue of Intercambio Magazine des- cribe the expansion of standardized tests on a national and international scale, the related emerging businesses and the effects on public education systems. Also analyzed are the impacts of this on professionalization and teaching work, as well as resistance to neoliberal reforms and the alternatives being developed.

Year 10, No. 14, December 2019