High-Stakes Schooling

What America Can Learn from Japan's Experiences with Testing, Accountability, and Education Reform

Bjork Christopher

If there is one thing that describes the trajectory of American education, it is this: more high-stakes testing. In the United States, the debates surrounding this trajectory can be so fierce that it feels like we are in uncharted waters. As Christopher Bjork reminds us in this study, however, we are not the first to make testing so central to education: Japan has been doing it for decades. Drawing on Japan's experiences with testing, overtesting, and recent reforms to relax educational pressures, he sheds light on the best path forward for US schools. Bjork asks a variety of important questions related to testing and reform: Does testing overburden students? Does it impede innovation and encourage conformity? Can a system anchored by examination be reshaped to nurture creativity and curiosity? How should any reforms be implemented by teachers? Each chapter explores questions like these with careful attention to the actual effects policies have had on schools in Japan and other Asian settings, and each draws direct parallels to issues that US schools currently face. Offering a wake-up call for American education, Bjork ultimately cautions that the accountability-driven practice of standardized testing might very well exacerbate the precise problems it is trying to solve.

About the Author

Christopher Bjork is professor and the Dexter M. Ferry Chair of Education at Vassar College. He is the author of "Indonesian Education" and editor or co-editor of many other books, including "Education and Training in Japan", "Educational Decentralization", "Taking Teaching Seriously", and "Japanese Education in an Era of Globalization".

Reviews

"This is the only book on Japan's relaxed education reforms, from which there is much to learn, and Bjork's approach – starting with classroom ethnography – brings an entirely different focus to the issue. With a solid grounding in ethnographic theory and current research on Japanese education, he delivers a clear and engaging assessment of Japan's experiences with high-stakes testing and what America can learn from them" – Gary DeCoker, author of "Looking at U. S. Education through the Eyes of Japanese Teachers"

"Bjork thoughtfully traces a national education reform as it plays out in a group of elementary and junior high schools far from Tokyo. He argues persuasively that the high academic performance of Japan's elementary schools is due to the absence of high-stakes testing, the accountability of strong human relationships within schools, and the attention to students' social, emotional, and intellectual needs" – Catherine Lewis, author of "Lesson Study Step by Step"

Back to the list of books