This project will investigate how large-scale data collection processes, like the census, are shaped by ideological beliefs about the social location of different groups within a society. In particular, what are the ways in which a range of beliefs about who or what is (or isn?t) normal contributes to how disability is defined, and subsequently measured for the purposes of informing research and policy at the national level? By examining the processes that go into the making of disability as a category on the Indian census, I will also discuss the implications of these statistics for education policy.

I explore stratification within secondary education by examining the intersectionality between teachers? expectations (TE) of students? behavior and intellect; the impact of state-issued standardized testing on pedagogical practice, and the formulation of TE?s of students. I review scholarship and articulate why it is necessary for exploration into this body of research. The impact of standardized testing can produce and intensify existing inequalities via TE?s of students? behavior and intellectual prowess by affecting students? academic achievement, increasing stratification within the education system; and in some settings, standardized testing mitigates the effect of teachers? negative expectations, creating an objective learning space.

This study addresses the issue of literacy assessment practices in a contemporary early childhood classroom. In particular, it focuses on a child labeled as ?at risk? for reading failure and her teacher?s experience during a multimodal literacy assessment and the information each produced about the other in shaping reading (dis)ability.