Resources

Recommended reading, watching, and listening.

Books, documentaries, and podcasts worth your time on testing, admissions, and educational equity.

Books
None of the Above
None of the Above — inside page
None of the Above
David Owen

Does a deep dive into the testing industry and exposes how its corporate priorities guide every decision.

Read online →
The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy
The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy — inside page
The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy
Nicholas Lemann

The definitive account of the growth of standardized testing in America.

Preview online →
The Mismeasure of Man
The Mismeasure of Man — inside page
The Mismeasure of Man
Stephen Jay Gould

Demonstrates how much testing is the soft science of psychology and how the biases of the scientists behind it frame our beliefs today.

Find on Bookshop →
The Tyranny of Testing
The Tyranny of Testing — inside page
The Tyranny of Testing
Banesh Hoffman

A detailed and thoughtful analysis of the problems with testing from the item level to the delivery mechanism to the systems and assumptions behind them.

Read online →
Miracle Children
Miracle Children — inside page
Miracle Children
Katie Benner & Erica L. Green

Exposes how one school exploited our obsession with highly rejective colleges and reveals the broken systems, persistent myths, and deep American failures fueling the admissions hunger games. Read the full review →

Find at publisher →
Race, Class, and Affirmative Action
Race, Class, and Affirmative Action — inside page
Race, Class, and Affirmative Action
Julie J. Park

Full of rich academic research but written with a clarity and voice that makes it a great read — full of personality and wit.

Author's site →
Rethinking College Admissions
Rethinking College Admissions — inside page
Rethinking College Admissions
OiYan Poon (co-ed.)

Reading OiYan Poon is like talking to her — it teaches you things your history classes skipped. I learned about regressive legalism and the education cases involving Asian Americans that shaped college admissions.

Author's site →
The State Must Provide
The State Must Provide — inside page
The State Must Provide
Adam Harris

An engaging and easy read that is also an enraging exposure of the systematic underfunding and exclusion of Black people from American higher education.

Author's site →
Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us

I'm currently reading this one and hope to finish it during my next vacation... whenever that is.

Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us
Evan Mandery

On my reading list.

Author's site →
Documentaries
Podcasts