Book Review: Rury, John L. 2024. An Age of Accountability: How Standardized Testing Came to Dominate American Schools and Compromise Education. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. 246 pp. $42.95 (paperback).

One issue for many school stakeholders in the United States are problems associated with test-based accountability. John L. Rury’s new book, An Age of Accountability: How Standardized Testing Came to Dominate American Schools and Compromise Education, shows that persistent policy debates about school accountability are anything but resolved. Rury’s balanced historical narrative traces the development of high-stakes testing from the perspectives of politicians, policy makers, scholars, educators, the testing industry, and others from the 1970s through the 2000s. The book’s comprehensive and nuanced analysis of the actors, events, and politics that influenced the test-based accountability era draws the conclusion that the age of accountability “compromised the process of education for millions of students” (Rury 2024, 128).