Hiding behind high-stakes testing: Meritocracy, objectivity and inequality in U.S. education

This paper analyses how high-stakes, standardised testing became thepolicy tool in the U.S. that it is today and discusses its role in advancing anideology of meritocracy that fundamentally masks structural inequalitiesrelated to race and economic class. This paper first traces the early historyof high-stakes testing within the U.S. context, focusing on its deep-rootedconnections with eugenics and IQ testing in schools. It then turns to themore recent history of high-stakes testing, highlighting the ways that raceand class inequality, as well as the ideology of meritocracy, manifest inthe United States today as part of a legacy of inequality