The essay by Julian E. Barnes on the SAT is very good. It's from the *US News and World Report* (11 Nov edition):
"The SAT Revolution," U.S. News & World Report (11 November 2002) [cover story] by Julian E. Barnes http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/021111/education/11sat.htm As he says, the piece is in part a follow-up to the excellent study of the SAT and its history published in 1999 by Nicholas Lemann, *The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy* The "secret history" to which Lemann alludes is *fascinating* and, in preliminary form, is set out in two very readable essays published in *The Atlantic Monthly* in 1995. I recommend these *very highly*. ---> "The Structure of Success in America," The Atlantic Monthly, 276 (August, 1995), pp. 41-60. by Nicholas Lemann http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/95sep/ets/grtsort1.htm "The Great Sorting," The Atlantic Monthly, 276 (September, 1995), pp. 84-100. by Nicholas Lemann http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/95sep/ets/grtsort2.htm Lemann writes, "... In the second part, "The Great Sorting," the Educational Testing Service is founded, with the intention -- on Henry Chauncey's part, at least -- of testing the entire population on every possible trait. Instead its success at measuring just one trait -- the ability to get good grades in school -- proves invaluable to the country's booming universities, and helps to create a new kind of American elite. "In America perhaps only race is a more sensitive subject than the way we sort ourselves out in the struggle for success. At the center of that struggle are higher education and ETS, the Educational Testing Service. Herewith an inside look at the history and workings of one of the most familiar yet least public of American institutions" ++++++++++++++++++++ There is also an excellent *Atlantic* interview of Lemann on the publication of his book: Nicholas Lemann Interview (with Katie Bacon) -- Atlantic Unbound (7 October 1999) http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/ba991007.htm Bacon introduces the discussion as follows: In his new book, *The Big Test*, Nicholas Lemann argues that the structure of educational opportunity in America is inherently flawed and must be rebuilt. Few can imagine America's educational system without the SAT and the other standardized tests that serve as engines of advancement through our schools. These tests have become the primary means of distributing educational opportunity in the United States, and they are the foundation of a system that has radically changed the way American society is organized. Yet, as Nicholas Lemann argues in his new book, *The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy*, this system was instituted relatively recently by just a few men, with no public debate or consensus. Around the time of the Second World War, James Bryant Conant, then the formidable president of Harvard University, devised a plan to "reorder the 'haves and have-nots' in every generation to give flux to our social order." Rather than cull students from a narrow stratum of New England society on the basis of their family connections or wealth, he would seek out the brightest people from all over the country and from all backgrounds. To this end, Conant's protégé, Henry Chauncey, founded the Educational Testing Service, which eventually became the primary organ of the selection process. Both men believed that they were helping to create a just society, one based on Jefferson's ideal of a "natural aristocracy" of merit, in which those selected would dedicate themselves to public service. Of course, things didn't work out quite the way they had planned. As Lemann writes, "fifty years later, their creation looks very much like what it was intended to replace": the old, hereditary aristocracy has shifted to a would-be meritocracy in which "education tends - and is explicitly, energetically, used by parents - to transfer status between generations, not to alter or upend it." In *The Big Test*, Lemann, who was the first journalist to be given access to ETS's archives, shows how our modern meritocratic system was formed, and examines its unintended consequences. He profiles beneficiaries of the system who have risen to the top of society as a result of their performance on tests and in school. He examines the clash between affirmative action and the ideals of a society in which opportunity is decided by testing. And he looks at why Conant's envisioned elite would devote itself to serving a government it has no desire to lead - and why its leadership is not wanted by the rest of society. Lemann, a staff writer at *The New Yorker*, was *The Atlantic Monthly*'s national correspondent from 1983-1998. Two of his articles for *The Atlantic* -- "The Structure of Success in America" (August 1995) and "The Great Sorting" (September 1995) -- went on to form significant sections of *The Big Test*. Lemann is also the author of *The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America* (1991). He spoke recently with *Atlantic Unbound*'s Katie Bacon. [If anyone wants a formatted copy of these pieces in an *.rtf MS-Word document, let me know & I will send along. Or I can just send in the body an e-mail.] best wishes, Stephen Straker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Vancouver, B.C. 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