lemann.txt, cr fri 07 jan 2000 by rha nicholas lemann, the big test: the secret history of the american meritocracy, new york: farrar, strauss, giroux, 1999 ==================== CONTENTS 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 Afterword: A Real Meritocracy Notes Acknowlegements Index ==================== Overall, this book is a history of and commentary on the meritocracy moement in the United States, as the subtitle suggests. It touches on ETS and the SAT only peripherally. but when it does, it focuses particularly on the racist effects of the test. Lemann transcends journalism in his philosphical and moral analysis of the concepts and implementation of meritocracy. The Big Test is a big and important book. Here we give very brief abstracts of its chapters. ==================== Book One: The Moral Equivalent of Religion 1. Henry Chauncey's Idea Feb, 1945. Henry Chauncey, asst dean, Harvard College, proposes a census of human resources, the Census of Abilities. This will done with multiple choice tests, esp., the SAT. He decides to accept a job as president of ETS. From this grew the meritocracy, a new system in which opportunity equals education, and is open to all according to ability, as measured by a standard test. Chauncey's dream is to replace aristocracy with a more democratic system. 2. The Glass Slipper Early history of IQ tests: Alfred Binet, 1905; World War I, II. 3. Native Intelligence 1920, Ben Wood creates the NY Regents tests. 1926, Carl Brigham, creates the SAT, taken by 8,026 high school students 1933, James Conant, president of Harvard College, asks Chauncey to create a new 4-year scholarship. 1933, Reynold Johnson, automatic test-scoring machine. 1934, Chauncey uses SAT to select scholorship winners 1935, Ben Wood creates the GRE. 1936, IBM takes over the scoring machine. 1937, Wood's achievement tests taken by 2,005 high school seniors after SAT. 4. The Natural Aristocracy 1813, Jefferson to Adams on natural aristocracy. 1848, Horace Mann proposes public education to Massachusetts. 1938, James Conant, revives Jefferson, classless America, "The Future of Our Higher Educations", opportunity = education. 5. Victory 1943, SAT adapted for Army-Navy College Qualification Test 1944, the GI Bill, opposed by Conant. Chauncey repeats the equation, opportunity = education. 1945, Chauncey takes over CEEB, CEEB takes over GRE and SAT. 1948, ETS openned in Princeton, Chauncey and Conant in charge takes over the SAT. Opposition movement begins. 6. IQ Joe 1948, ETS creates LCAT and MCAT. 1950, Korean war. 1951, ETS gets government contract to test one million college students for draft deferment. More opposition. 7. The Census of One Ability 1957, Sputnik, 500,000 students take the SAT. Validity (predictive value) of the test lower than that of grades. ETS makes several unsuccessful attempts to move beyond aptitude testing. 8. The Standard Gauge 1952, Clark Kerr becomes chancellor of UC Berkeley, and trustee of ETS. 1954, ETS gets competition from SRA (Science Research Associates) 1956, Life article on national Merit Scholarship program. Banesh Hoffman attacks ETS on basis of discrimination against bright students. 1958, Clark Kerr becomes president of Univ of California. 1959. ETS gets competition from ACT (Aamerican College Testing) 1962, Hoffman publishes book, The Tyranny of Testing. 9. In the System 1950, Stahley H. Kaplan of Brooklyn builds his business of tutoring for the SAT, while ETS believes it is uncoachable. 10. Meritocracy History of universal public education IQ testing, the eleven-plus in England 1958, Michael Young, The Rise of the Meritocracy, read by: Henry Chauncey, Clark Kerr,... Opportunity through testing and education ==================== Book Two: The Master Plan 11. Rah! Rah! Rah! Story of the creation of UC Berkeley by Clark Kerr, economist, mediator, Quaker. Author of a book on meritocracy, Kerr started as a meritocrat, selected by an IQ test. 1952, Kerr made chancellor of UC Berkeley 1958, Kerr becomes president of UC system 1959, Kerr opposes the competing state college system, tightens admissions requirements for UC system, creates and fights for the Master Plan for Higher Education 1960, Governor Pat Brown signs the Master Plan into law, Kerr is on the cover of Time magazine The Master Plan created a hierarchical system with the UC system at thte top, made Kerr famous around the world, mandated an open door to UC for the top 12% of high school graduates, created several new campuses: free higher education for all. 12. Chauncey at Yale 1953, Sam Chauncey, Henry's son, admitted to Yale 1957, Sam becomes an assistant dean at Yale 1963, Kingman Brewster, Jr. becomes president of Yale Sam becomes his personal assistant 1964, R. Inslee Clark appointed dean of admissions Clark used the SAT to meritocraticize Yale admissions (Princeton followed, Harvard did not) Brewster compromises between merit- and arist-ocracy at Yale 1970, Clark dismissed 1977, Brewster resigns 13. The Negro Problem 1954, US Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional 1963, bias of IQ testing against blacks affirmed by Illinois Rair Employment Practices Commission, Civil Rights Act proposed by President Kennedy, mandates the federal civil-rights study, "a full-scale social-scientific analysis of the problem of poor Negro performance on standardized tests." 1964, the conflict between the politics of meritocracy, based on standardized testing, and goals of the NAACP become apparent, Civil Rights Act passed, contract for civil-rights study awarded to ETS 1965, creation of affirmative action 1966, ETS publishes the results of the civil-rights study, the Coleman Report: "The magnitude of the black-white difference and the uniformity over the country was mind-boggling." "Both affirmative action and a meritocratic system based on standardized tests began without any public debate or vote... The inherent contradiction between them was an all-absorbing national conflict waiting to happen." 14. The Fall of Clark Kerr 1959, UC requires SAT of out-of-state applicants 1962, California Fair Employment Practices Commissson pressures Kerr to hire more blacks. Kerr resists. UC drops SAT. 1964, Spring: CORE sit-ins in San Francisco for more jobs for blacks 1964, Summer: Berkeley students go to the South for Freedom Summer 1964, Fall: Berkeley student activities at campus South Gate annoy Regents of UC Kerr leaves Chancellor Strong to deal with it Students take over Sproul Hall Governor Brown calls in the Highway patrol 1965, Winter: Strong dismissed, FSM students target Kerr Reagan defeats Brown as governor Berkeley rated as #1 research university in US 1967, Reagan cuts UC budget 30% Regents fire Kerr UC requires all applicants to take the SAT UC becomes ETS's biggest customer 1968, First year of the new SAT requirement implemented, reduction in black and Mexican-American students, affirmative action increased to partially compensate 15. The Invention of the Asian-American 1965, Dan Nakanishi (East Los Angeles) elected Boy Mayor of LA, improved his SAT scores by training 1966, Dan recruited for Yale 1967, Dan joins Mexican-American Student Association of Yale 1969, Dan founds Asian-American Student Association of Yale, Alice Young, Bill Lee join it 1970, Black Panther trial in New Haven, AASA supports defendents 16. Mandarins mandarin = platonic guardian = natural aristocrat In the 1970s: Mandarins prefer professional schools to graduate programs. Lifers go to work in large organizatons. Talents become enrepreneurs. Alice Young goes to Harvard Law School. Bill Lee goes to law school. Don Nakanishi goes to graduate school (History, Harvard). 1970, Molly Munger, from Pasadena, is at Radcliffe, Alice Ballard, from Philadelphia, is her freshman roomate. 1974, both go to Harvard Law School. 17. The Weak Spot (Alice Young is working for a New York law firm.) (Bill Lee is working for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.) 1969, Nixon becomes president, appoints Arthur Fletcher as head of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance of the Labor Department, the main home of affirmative action. Fletcher revives the Philadelphia Plan, passed by Congress at end of 1969, imposing numerical goals for minority hiring. 1971, Conservative psychologists Arthur Jenson (Berkeley) and Richard Herrnstein (Harvard) opposed affirmative action and meritocracy. 1972, Six Jewish organisations protest affirmative action. 1974, Supreme Court hears the DeFumis v. University of Washington case. No decision, but Wm. O. Douglas blasts ETS and LSAT for racial bias. 1978, Supreme Court rules on the Bakke v. Regents of the University of California case. NAACP files a brief, including an Appendix B, by Bill Lee, on the history of segregation in the California public school system. Ruling: against quotas, but asking what race OK. Implication: combination of standard test and afirmative action a legal risk, but ETS retained its power. 18. Working (Bio update of Alice Young, law firms in New York) (Bio update on Molly Munger, law firms in Pasadena, U. S. Attorney's Office) 19. The Fall of William Turnbull (Bio of William Turnbull) 1970, American university enrollment: 8,000,000. SAT takers: 2,000,000. Henry Chauncey resigns as ETS president, William Turnbull succeeds him. 1971, Black psychologists criticize ETS. 1972, Chuck Stone quits ETS, accuses it of bias against minorities. 1974, Stephen Brill attacks ETS in New York magazine. Ralph Nader and Allan Nairn begin investigation of ETS. Federal Trade Commission finds that coaching raises scores. 1978, California passes truth-in-testing bill. 1979, New York passes truth-in-testing bill. Old SAT tests were published. Coaching business becomes respectable. 1980, Nader-Nairn report, The Reign of ETS, published. Turnbull fired as president of ETS, replaced by Gregory Anrig. Anrig restores ETS supremacy. ======================= Book Three: The Guardians 20. Behind the Curtain (Bio of Molly Munger, cont.) 1978, California Proposition 13 passed, education funding reduced. Molly more involved in African-American community. 21. Berkeley Squeezed (Bio of Bill Lee, cont.) (Bio of Don Nakanishi, cont.) 1980s, Don teaching at UCLA, active in Asian-American political activity and recruiting for the Yale Club. Bill Lee moves from NAACP Legal Defense Fund (New York) to Center for Law in the Public Interest (Los Angeles). UCLA and UCB become much more Asian. 1984, Asian-Americans, 5% of California population, are now 25% of UCB admissions, based on SAT scores. UCB admissions office announced that Asian-Americans would no longer get affirmative action. Verbal SAT scores of 400 or more would be required of all admissions. Asian-American admissions drop from 25% to 20% immediately. Chicano and Black admissions increase. Chancellor Heymann of UCB publicly apologizes. Federal Office of Human Rights investigates UCLA, UCB, and Harvard. 1988, White admissions at UC Berkeley drop to 37%. UCB Academic Senate commissions a report on admissions under Sociology Professor Jerome Karabel. (Bio of Jerry and Krista Karabel) 1989, Karabel report published, UCB admissions office decreases affirmative action. Clark Kerr approves. Don Nakanishi promoted to tenure at UCLA after a battle. Bill Lee moves from the Center for Law in the Public Interest to the new Los Angeles office of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 22. Molly's Crisis (Bio of Charlie Munger) (Bio of Molly Munger, cont.) Molly moves from U.S. Attorney's Office to start her own firm, then on to Fried, Frank (Los Angeles). 1992, LA riots. 1994, Molly goes to work for Bill Lee at the NAACP LDF. 23. The Case of Winton Manning 1970, Turnbull appoints Winton Manning senior vice-president for research and development of ETS. 1978, Manning runs research project for Clark Kerr in connection with the Bakke case. 1982, Manning is demoted to senior scholar by Anrig, begins study of family background on SAT scores, invents a new score, the MAT, which corrects the SAT for differences of background. 1990, ETS forces Manning to drop the MAT project, preferring affirmative action as a correction to the anti-minority bias of the SAT. 1993, Manning retires from ETS. 24. Surprise Attack 1988, Califoria legistalture reccomends proportiaonal representation by ethnicity in higher education. 1991, The Civil Rights Act passed by Congress, endorces affirmative action. Glynn Custred (Cal State University, Hayward) and Thomas Wood draft the California Civil Rights Initiatitive, a ballot initiative to repeal affirmative action. 1994, CCRI put on ballot, seen as a big problem by the NAACP LDF. Bill Lee assigns Molly Munger and Connie Rice to it. "... the modern American meritocracy was set up privately, outside the purview of politics and open debate. Indeed, standardized testing for college and graduate-school admissions and its add-ons like affirmative action were probably the most consequential arrangements put in place without a public consensus behind them in late twentieth-century America." -- p. 288 1995, all Republican aspirants to the presidency endorse the CCRI. 25. No Retreat February, 1995, Public opinion polls show 7:2 support for the CCRI. Molly tries to get support of the California Democratic Party (CDP) but fails. President Clinton orders "a review of all the federal government's so-called affirmative action programs." April, 1995, At the CDP annual convention, Barbara Boxer and President Clinton support affirmative action. 26. The Fundis and the Realos May, 1995, CDP sets up a task force to determine its position on affirmative action. Jerry Karabel describes it as devided into two camps: the Fundis and the Realos. Fundis, including Molly and Connie, were connected to the Feminist Majority organization. Realos, including Jerry himself, identified with the CDP and the White House. CDP avoided a firm position on either affirmative action or the CCRI. July 19, 1995, Clinton affirms affirmative action in a major public speech, but did not mention the CCRI. July 20, 1995, Governor Wilson proposes to abolish all affirmative action programs at the University of California. July 24, 1995, Bob Dole proposes to abolish all federal affirmative-action programs. 27. Changing Sides Fall, 1995, Fundi Molly uncovers the racial and sexist agendas of the conservative support for the CCRI. Realo Jerry wants to get a counter-initiative, CEONI, on the ballot. The CDF and White House supports neither. Republican support for the CCRI was also withheld. November, 1995, Governor Wilson decides to support CCRI. It gets on the ballot as Proposition 209. April, 1996, Connie and Elaine Jones of the NAACP LDF visit Colin Powell. August, 1996, Anti-Prop 209 movement splits in two. Molly, now a Realo, kicks out the Fundis (feminists). October, 1996, Powell speaks out against the CCRI. Bob Dole abandons his anti-affirmative action proposal. November, 1996, Colin Powell, in his keynote address to the Republican convention, goes all-out for affirmative action. 28. Defeat September. 1996, Molly realizes the Anti-Prop 209 group has been conned by the White House and the CDP: their money never arrived. Both national parties tried to discourage contributions to defeat 209. October 1, 1996, ontributions bean to arrive from labor unions and the CDP. October 16, 1996, Clinton endorses affirmative action on TV, but does not mention Prop 209. October 29, Bob Dole again supports Prop 209 and attacks affirmative action, in San Diego. October 31, 1966, Clinton publically speaks against Prop 209, in Oakland. November, 1996, Prop 209 wins by a narrow margin, 54-46: affirmative action, blacks, Latinos, Asians, Jews, and women, set back. Molly said the opposition had reduced the 80-20 lead Prop 209 had enjoyed at the start of the 18-month campaign. ================== Epilogue 1997, Appeals against Prop 209 failed. Bill Lee became Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Jerry Karabel returned to sociology. Molly created the Advancement Project. Afterword: A Real Meritocracy Today's American Meritocracy is a limited-contest meritocracy of upper-middle class Mandarins, halfway between an aristocracy and a real meritocracy of equal opportunity for everyone. The failure of meritocracy followed from three presumptions: 1. The main task of the system is to select a small number of people to form a new elite. 2. The means of selection (ie, the definition of merit) should be intelligence tests. 3. The purpose of the elite is civil service, that is, to run the nation. The meritocracy system then evolved into a geneeral system for the distribution of opportunity and rewards. Our present system is pernicious, almost as unfair as an aristocracy. Our universities have evolved into a national personnel department. We should reject the dreams of Plato, Jeffeerson, and Conant, in favor of John Adams' idea of a society without an elite. A real meritocracy "would be a society that gave everyne equal opportunity and gave jobs to those best able to perform them... there would be as little lifelong tenure on the basis of youthful promise as possible. The elite would be ... constantly shifting..." "The institutions that would most dramitcally change in this reimagining of what meritocracy means in America would be the educational ones." Lehmann proposes: * to send most people all the way through college, * to establish greater national authority over education, * to impose on high schools a nationally agreed-upon curriculum, * to require mastery of the high school curriculum for admission to college, * public education ranks, with democracy, as one of the great social contributions of the USA. * our current meritocracy resembles more and more the aristocracy it was intended to replace. ================== end: lemann.txt