The Big Test - The Secret History of the American Meritocracy

Description

What do we know about the history, origin, design, and purpose of the SAT? Who invented it, and why? How did it acquire such a prominent and lasting position in American education? The Big Test reveals the ideas, people, and politics behind a fifty-year-old Utopian social experiment that changed this country. Combining vibrant storytelling, vivid portraiture, and thematic analysis, Lemann shows why this experiment did not turn out as planned. It did create a new elite, but it also generated conflict and tension―and America's best educated, most privileged people are now leaders without followers. Drawing on unprecedented access to the Educational Testing Service's archives, Lemann maintains that America's meritocracy is neither natural nor inevitable, and that it does not apportion opportunity equally or fairly. His important study not only asks profound moral and political questions about the past and future of our society but also carries implications for current social and educational policy. As Brent Staples noted in his New York Times editorial column: "Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts announced that prospective students would no longer be required to submit SAT scores with their applications. . . . Holyoke's president, Joanne Creighton, was personally convinced by reading Nicholas Lemann's book, The Big Test, which documents how the SAT became a tool for class segregation." All students of education, sociology, and recent U.S. history―especially those focused on testing, theories of learning, social stratification, or policymaking―will find this book fascinating and alarming. Book One - The Moral Equivalent of Religion 1. Henry Chauncey's Idea 2. The Glass Slipper 3. Native Intelligence 4. The Natural Aristocracy 5. Victory 6. IQ Joe 7. The Census of One Ability 8. The Standard Gauge 9. In the System 10. Meritocracy Book Two - The Master Plan 11. Rah! Rah! Rah! 12. Chauncey at Yale 13. The Negro Problem 14. The Fall of Clark Kerr 15. The Invention of the Asian-American 16. Mandarins 17. The Weak Spot 18. Working 19. The Fall of William Turnbull Book Three - The Guardians 20. Behind the Curtain 21. Berkeley Squeezed 22. Molly's Crisis 23. The Case of Winton Manning 24. Surprise Attack 25. No Retreat 26. The Fundis and the Realos 27. Changing Sides 28. Defeat Epilogue