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The myth of the meritocracy

Kathleen Porter-Magee
12.22.2011

New York Magazine has a cover story entitled “The Junior Meritocracy.” The crux of the article is that administering standardized admissions and IQ tests to 4-year-olds--a common practice for entry into top public and private NYC kindergartens--is pointless. Among the elementary schools cited in the article is Hunter College Elementary, a publicly funded elementary school for “gifted and talented” students that uses such a test to help make kindergarten admissions decisions. While I think using a rigid cut score from an IQ test to make these admissions decisions about 4-year-olds is a questionable move for any school, I’m particularly distressed by the thought of a publicly-funded school engaging in such nonsense for two reasons....Read it here.

Tags: New York

Kathleen Porter-Magee is managing partner of Leadership Roundtable. To read more, visit their Substack blog, Renewal.

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