1917 Manufactures push for vocational education (better workers at the public’s expense)
Smith-Hughes Act passes, providing federal funding for vocational education. Big manufacturing corporations push this, because they want to remove job skill training from the apprenticeship programs of trade unions and bring it under their own control.
1932 Standardized testing begins (higher scores = better workers)
A survey of 150 school districts reveals that three quarters of them are using so-called intelligence testing to place students in different academic tracks.
1948 – SAT testing begins to prove immigrants are dumb
Educational Testing Service is formed, merging the College Entrance Examination Board, the Cooperative Test Service, the Graduate Records Office, the National Committee on Teachers Examinations and others, with huge grants from the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations. These testing services continued the work of eugenicists like Carl Brigham (originator of the SAT) who did research “proving” that immigrants were feeble-minded.
Present –
Same as in the past. Public schools strive to education for the work force, but the work force no longer needs the skills so College became required and now a post secondary degree.
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