Reader Duane Swacker reminds me to tell you that the most
important book for our age was written fifty years ago. It is
Raymond Callahan’s Education and the Cult of Efficiency. It was
published in 1962. It may be hard to find. Get it from the
library. It describes the “efficiency movement” of the early
twentieth century, when administrators developed check lists for
everything that teachers do. The university efficiency experts
swarmed the schools. That was also the time when standardized
testing was adopted by many school systems and tracking became a
popular feature. Businessmen wanted the schools to be more
efficient. Many commissions reported on how schools should use
time more efficiently. Many commissions recommended ways to cut
the budget of schools. Read this book. A tweeter sent this scan
of chapter 5: https://webspace.utexas.edu/hcleaver/www/330T/350k
PEECallahanCh5ExpertsTable.pdf