The Merit Myth, Jeff Strohl
The Merit Myth, Jeff Strohl
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The Merit Myth
How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America

Author: Jeff Strohl, Anthony P. Carnevale, Peter Schmidt

Narrator: Jonathan Yen

Unabridged: 10 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/16/2020


Synopsis

Colleges fiercely defend America's deeply stratified higher education system, arguing that the most exclusive schools reward the brightest kids who have worked hard to get there. But it doesn't actually work this way. As the recent college-admissions bribery scandal demonstrates, social inequalities and colleges' pursuit of wealth and prestige stack the deck in favor of the children of privilege.

The Merit Myth calls out our elite colleges for what they are: institutions that pay lip service to social mobility and meritocracy, while offering little of either. Through policies that exacerbate inequality, including generously funding so-called merit-based aid for already-wealthy students rather than expanding opportunity for those who need it most, US universities are woefully complicit in reproducing the racial and class privilege across generations that they pretend to abhor.

This timely and incisive book argues for unrigging the game by dramatically reducing the weight of the SAT/ACT; measuring colleges by their outcomes, not their inputs; designing affirmative action plans that take into consideration both race and class; and making 14 the new 12—guaranteeing every American a public K–14 education. The Merit Myth shows the way for higher education to become the beacon of opportunity it was intended to be.

About Jeff Strohl

Jeff Strohl is the director of research at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. He lives in Washington, DC.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Audrey

2.75 stars Don't let my star rating fool you: I really did enjoy this book. I learned so much from it and this has introduced me more thoroughly to a topic I would love to explore even more. I thought it was incredibly well-researched, and the authors conveyed very complex concepts in a passionate an......more

Goodreads review by Cristie

This book perfectly lays out how not every American gets a fair chance at a college education. Those with money can buy their child's way into whatever school that they want, as there are so many different avenues they can take to accomplish this. This didn't have a lot of shocking information, but......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Touches on many of the topics I’m most interested in, and puts together the strongest possible case for reforming higher education’s racist and classist admissions policies, funding, and reliance on testing practices. While the authors propose solutions at the end, they would take a serious level of......more

Goodreads review by Marcy

I received a free copy of this book through the GoodReads First Reads program. "The Merit Myth" talks about the history of the post-secondary education system in the US, and how that history impacts the current environment within that system. It covers some of the racist and classist policies that ex......more