The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy - medicalbooks.filipinodoctors.org

Show more pictures

The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy

Brand: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Model: FBA_knife strop 01
ISBN 0374527512
EAN: 9780374527518
Category: #795807 in Paperback (United States)
List Price: $30.00
Price: $24.04  (Customer Reviews)
You Save: $5.96 (20%)
Dimension: 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.93 inches
Shipping Wt: 0.95 pounds. FREE Shipping (Details)
Availability: In Stock
Buy From Amazon

Product Description

The widely acclaimed study of what's gone wrong in American higher education.

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.


Buy From Amazon

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought




*If this is not the "The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link.  Details were last updated on Dec 25, 2024 01:10 +08.