Any merit to National Merit program?

Jonathan Reider via Valeria Strauss:

I have long wondered why the National Merit scholarship program had so much cache, given the criteria necessary for winning.

The program is a competition in which kids become eligible if they do well on the PSAT, or Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is generally taken in 11th grade though some students take it earlier. Any regular reader to this blog will know that I do not look kindly on anything in education that relies on the a single standardized test score.

Here is a critique of the program that I recently read and wanted to share. It was written by Jonathan Reider, director of college counseling at San Francisco University High School, in response to a list-serv query about how schools should display National Merit winners. His advice: Don't.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 10, 2010 11:20 AM
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