An Illusion of Equity: The Legacy of Eugenics in Today’s Education

Public education plays a crucial role in crafting a nation's future. An Illusion of Equity: The Legacy of Eugenics in Today's Education demonstrates how centuries of propaganda have led us to accept the idea that large-scale test scores indicate something so valuable about human beings that they should be used to organize society. The high-stakes use of test scores mandated by contemporary education policy ensures the continuation of the social hierarchy created by the long-standing test score gap. Drawing on decades of experience as an educator, author Wendy Zagray Warren unpacks the origins of this practice, inviting us to probe the ideologies underlying testing procedures and score interpretation and to evaluate the rationale for using test scores as the sole markers for academic achievement.

Wendy Zagray Warren

Dr. Wendy Zagray Warren teaches at Berea College and serves as director of the Berea College Forestry Outreach Center. Warren holds a doctorate…