The Big Test (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Nicholas Lemann
- First Published: 1999
- Type of Work: Education and history
- Time of Work: 1945-1999
- Setting: The United States
- Principal Characters: Henry Chauncey, James Bryant Conant, Henry A. Murray, Isabel Briggs Myers, Stanley Kaplan, Clark Kerr, Ralph Nader, William Turnbull, Molly Munger, Bill Lann Lee, Jerry Karabel
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, United States or Americans, Education or educators, 1940’s, 1980’s, Colleges or universities, 1990’s
- Locales: United States
The furious controversies swirling around SAT-type examinations are often reduced to a simple formula: merit versus diversity. The men and occasional woman who pioneered the tests that would break the near-monopoly on elite education held by the heirs to power and privilege certainly did not foresee this conflict. They had viewed testing as a near-miraculous means of selecting talented youth from the middle and lower classes who, through education, would be trained as the new American governing elite.
The concept of a “meritocracy” emerged from various social science theories...
[The entire page is 1804 words long]
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