The Darker Side of the Sorting Hat: Representations of Educational Testing in Dystopian Young Adult Fiction

This article presents a close examination of representations of educational testing in dystopian young adult fiction published between 2004 and 2014. Analysis focuses on understanding how testing and its repercussions are represented in these novels, and what such might say about the contemporary cultural value placed on testing. At the same time, given that testing is a prominent feature of dystopias, we also explore what the conflation of testing with dystopic political structures might be saying critically about high-stakes testing.