Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 82, No. 4
Abstract
The Case for Curriculum-Based, External Examinations That Have Significant Consequences for Students
Paul E. Peterson
Program on Education Policy and Governance, Harvard University and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
State-mandated systems of comprehensive examinations to be taken prior to high school graduation would focus the attention of students in high school, motivate them to higher levels of performance, provide guidance to teachers as to the appropriate material to be covered, and reduce antieducational pressures within peer groups, all of whose members would share a common objective.
About The Author
Paul E. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and Director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and Editor-In-Chief of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research on education policy. He is a former director of the Governmental Studies program at the Brookings Institution. Peterson is the author or editor of over 100 articles and more than 30 books, three of which have received major awards from the American Political Science Association. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, he was a professor for many years there in the Departments of Political Science and Education. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the German Marshall Foundation, and the Center for Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He was recently awarded the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation prize for Distinguished Scholarship, part of its Excellence in Education award program. He is a member of the independent review panel advising the Department of Education's evaluation of the No Child Left Behind law. The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center in 2006 reported that Peterson's studies on school choice and vouchers were among the country's most influential studies of education policy.
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