Product Description: ''This book is an important contribution to the reassessment of the use of standardized tests in college admissions. . . . Colleges that are well-prepared for a discussion about standardized admission tests will understand how their research aligns with the information provided in this publication''--David Hawkins, National Association for College Admission CounselingWhat can a college admissions officer safely predict about the future of a 17-year-old? Are the best and the brightest students the ones who can check off the most correct boxes on a multiple-choice exam? Or are there better ways of measuring ability and promise? In this penetrating and revealing look at high-stakes standardized admissions tests, Joseph Soares demonstrates the far-reaching and mostly negative impact of the tests on American life and calls for nothing less than a national policy change...read more

Product Description: This book studies Oxford University's transformation―and the political hazards for academics that ensued―when, after World War II, it changed from a private liberal-arts club with aristocratic pretensions into a state university heavily committed to the natural sciences, and with a middle-class constituency and a meritocratic ethos...read more