How to make American higher education fairer In the 1930s, American colleges and universities began to screen applications using the SAT, a mass-administered, IQ-descended standardized test. The widespread adoption of the test accompanied the development of the worlds first mass higher education systemand served to promote the idea that the United States was becoming ameritocracyin which admission to selective higher education institutions would be granted to those who most deserved itIn Higher Admissions, Nicholas Lemann reflects on the state of Americas aspirational meritocracy and the enduring value and meaning of standardized testing. Lemann writes that the anticipation of the Supreme Courts 2023 decision banning affirmative action, plus the Covid pandemic, led hundreds of universities to stop requiring standardized admissions tests; now many colleges and universities are reinstituting test requirementsThe country is preoccupied with the admissions policies of the most se