Education Commons^™

Selling "Dream Insurance" : The Standardized Test-Preparation Industry's Search For Legitimacy, 1946-1989, Keegan Shepherd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the origins, growth, and legitimization of the standardized test preparation ("test-prep") industry from the late 1940s to the end of the 1980s. In particular, this thesis focuses on the development of Stanley H. Kaplan Education Centers, Ltd. ("Kaplan") and The Princeton Review ("TPR"), and how these companies were most conducive in making the test-prep industry and standardized test-preparation itself socially acceptable. The standardized test most frequently discussed in this thesis is the Scholastic Aptitude Test ("SAT"), especially after its development came under the control of Educational Testing Service ("ETS"), but due attention is also given to the …

The Significance Of The Work Of Colonel Francis Wayland Parker In The Progressive Educational Movement With Special Reference To His Influence On John Dewey, Lea Bevan Moore

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Our American forefathers, with the exception of Thomas Jefferson, had no ideal of a system of universal education. His plans were throttled by slavery, but the doctrine of universal education lived. Then at a time when the whole system of common schools was in danger of failure Horace Mann gave his life to the promotion of the interests of the Common school.

In 1837, the very year Horace Mann gave up his prospect of a famous political career to become Secretary of the State Board of Education in Massachusetts, Francis Wayland Parker was born in New Hampshire, and was destined …