The original notion at the heart of the SAT was that it would overthrow the country’s existing inherited aristocracy and replace it with a more democratic meritocracy; the test would locate genius wherever in American society it was concealed and help raise those intellectual standouts to positions of privilege and power. But as the SAT expanded, evidence mounted that the students who tended to excel on the test looked a lot like the scions of that old aristocracy. Rich kids reliably did better than poor kids; whites did better than blacks. That wasn’t particularly controversial
