


America’s progressives should love standardised tests
New evidence in a long-running argument
SOMETIMES POLITICAL fights go on long after evidence that should settle the argument has come in. Such is the case with standardised tests. In February the Trump administration warned universities that eliminating standardised admissions tests to achieve racial diversity would be illegal. The Biden administration took the opposite stance: it encouraged colleges to consider dropping admissions tests like the SAT or ACT, which critics have long said favour the wealthy and disadvantage black Americans. In 2020, which already seems like another era, Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist”, called the tests “the most effective racist weapon ever devised to…exclude [black and brown students] from prestigious schools.”
Explore more
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The joy of test”

Can Progressives learn to make progress again?
In the political wilderness, Democrats are asking themselves how they lost their way

Tracking Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown
And why that is increasingly hard to do

Abortion becomes more common in some US states that outlawed it
Shield laws have profound implications for how federalism works
Will the Supreme Court empower Trump to sack the Fed’s boss?
A case that tests the president’s power to dismiss officials has implications for the central bank
Berniechella: America’s left protests against Donald Trump
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez take their show on the road