SAT, etcRe: Greater Confidence in Democrats, Poll Finds

Steve Grube grube at ix.netcom.com
Thu Nov 11 05:19:57 PST 1999


.....and on the SAT, I heard Nicholas Lehman speak at a local bookstore on his book _Meritocracy_In_America_. It's about the origin of the SAT and about the Educational Testing Service (ETS). It's a great bit of investigation since he had a rare opportunity to paw through the archives for a couple of years of the first president of ETS. This man keep everything from his life (first report card, etc) and was a meticulous note taker. Although the origins go back as far the the eugenics movement and the the first I.Q test (1905), ETS really got it's start when the president of Harvard (Connant) had gotten fed up with the upper class twits that inhabited the university in the 20's and 30's and decided to use testing to begin a shift to academics. Out of that eventually grew the SAT (post-war?). Clark Kerr helped get the standardized tests rolling on the west coast through the UC system. ETS is the sole source for the entire SAT. It's a compelling story that has *never* been told. -Steve Grube ==============================

Carrol Cox wrote:


> Maureen Therese Anderson wrote:
>
> > (first-generation college attender who probably scored lower than GWB but
> > really don't recall--only remember filling in all those dreadful little
> > ovals with #2 pencil while suddenly wishing I hadn't slept through math
> > class and wondering what would happen if I craftily filled in two ovals per
> > question instead of one...)
>
> SAT, of course, has not been here since Year 1. I never even heard of
> it until I already had my Ph.D. In fact, the first time I ever heard of the
> GRE was when another person on the faculty proclaimed that *everyone*
> in grand school had taken it. These tests are relatively recent. No SAT
> (or any other national test) at Western Michigan in 1947; no GRE at
> U of Mich in 1955.
>
> Carrol



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list