About this title: Using his unique access to the files of the Educational Testing Service, journalist Nicholas Lemann examines how the ETS, in a program initiated by James Conant of Harvard University, hoped to use intelligence testing to create a meritocracy that would lead America in the postwar period. A New York Times Notable Book of 1999.
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Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-13:9780374299842ISBN:0374299846
Description: Very Good. 0374299846 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please email us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Description: Good. 1999-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780374299842ISBN:0374299846
Description: Very good in good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 406 p. Audience: General/trade. Firsdt printing hard cover in god condition. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 2000-11-16
ISBN-13:9780374527518ISBN:0374527512
Description: New. ~~BRAND NEW~SAME AS PICTURED~**Check out my other listings: BOOKS, CDS, DVDS, VIDEOS, GAMES***kl1**Check out my other listings: BOOKS, CDS, DVDS, VIDEOS, GAMES*** read more
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Near-new condition. Price inside dustcover: $27.00. NO remainder marks or price clippings. Tight spine, bright pages. NO writing, marks or tears inside book. 406 pages. -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 ... read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780374299842ISBN:0374299846
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" Tall. CM6-A first edition hardcover book in fine condition in fine dust jacket that is mylar protected. The Big Test is superb social history and analysis that not only explains the origins of the inadequate system we are all living with but asks profound moral and political questions about what makes for a good society, and what condition the United States is in today. read more
Description: Lemann, Nicholas., Farrar Straus Giroux, nd (1999), c1999, 1st Edition, boards w/gilt spine titles, remainder mark on foredge o/w fine w/dj, 406 pp w/index & notes, tall 8vo, 'The Secret History of American Meritocracy' read more
Edition: Stated First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, Gordonsville, Virginia, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780374299842ISBN:0374299846
Description: Very Good in Very Good Price Intact jacket. 9 1/4 X 6 1/4. Pages are tight, bright & clean. Binding very firm and straight, sewn signatures. Boards, spine, edges and corners very good. Jacket in a crystal-clear polyester protector sleeve. No apparent reading wear. If needed for reference, research, analysis, dissertation or just enjoyment, this is the one. 406 pages, indexed. read more
Edition: Stated 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780374299842ISBN:0374299846
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. This 6 x 9.5 hard cover book has the author's name and title in black and white lettering with a photo illustration on the black and orange cover. This brilliant book show us for the first time the ideas, the people, and the politics behind the fifty year old system that determines the course of Americans' lives. 406 pages including index. Clean, unmarked copy with tight binding. read more
"Forget where I heard about this book, probably NPR. Interesting and thought provoking; however, the author's style and his flexing of his vocabulary- especially in first half of book- made reading the book like walking through a muddy field in loose wellies."
"Page-turning history of standardized testing in the U.S. Really good background on how we got where we are today with the SAT and ACT + helpful in understanding the current battles between the two test publishers."
"Most nonfiction books are alike in that they present their compelling arguments in the first chapter, their conclusions and recommendations in the final chapter, and everything in-between can be skimmed to get a sense of the evidence used to get from point A to point B. BUT NOT SO THIS BOOK.
Lemann is quite possibly the most engaging nonfiction writer I've read, weaving a compelling and increasingly complex narrative that begins in the hallowed halls of the turn-of-the-century academic elite and ends up encompassing issues of K12 and higher education, desegregation, women's rights, affirmative action, and the entire class structure of the USA.
His argument, furthermore, is really interesting, essentially about how small groups of people with a certain set of ideals set in motion the entire structure of the "meritocratic idea" we take for granted in America today...specifically, the idea that a good college education = success. Before the 1940s, though, he argues, college was just a hangout for the wealthy aristocracy bound for national leadership, and intelligence was seen as counterproductive for such a task (hmm, looking at George W, maybe not much has changed). But thanks to a cabal of folks who wanted to make universities into the weeding ground to cull the best and brightest to be our leaders, we got the SAT and a whole change in the idea of admissions.
At first, such reformers are portrayed as underdogs fighting the system. As the decades pass, the system THEY create spirals out of control. Sure, colleges weeded and selected. But the "meritocratic elite" went on to eschew public service and go for moneymaking and the markers of "success", and therefore college became not about grooming for leadership as much as deciding who gets what slices of the economic goodies America has to offer. (Which in itself might not even be so bad if our education system was fair. Yet attempts to try and make it fairer via policies like affirmative action are violently opposed).
Somewhere along the line, the idea of school's purpose being "to educate all students" never gets much traction.
As an educator and someone interested in politics and history, this book was the perfect storm. As ambivalent as Lemann is about the new "educated Mandarin class", he certainly revels in being one of its members...*I* had to look up some of the words he used. Yet the highbrow style does not come at the expense of readability and, yes, even humor, albeit the dry ironic kind.
A must-read for wonks, teachers, wonkish teachers, and especially for students applying to college.
"On the summer that I took off for Iowa City, Iowa to write test questions for ACT, I also brought this book to read. I was on a mission to discover the bias of standardized tests, but I learned even more about educational opportunity and who really gets deemed eligible for an Ivy League education, affirmative action and California's Proposition 249 to eliminate it, as well as the insanity of the high-stakes Scholastic Aptitude Test. This is a must-read for any kid with S.A.T. anxiety."
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