ABSTRACT
Educational policies in the United States have been integrally related to social and economic policies, with domestic and foreign interests linked inextricably. During the twentieth century, education and schooling in the United States have functioned to increase efficiency of work and labor, select and channel individuals within differential education and training programs according to national manpower needs, and sort them into desired slots in the labor force. Testing and measurement of intelligence, skills, and abilities have been the instruments of this sorting and ranking, which has taken place within a discourse of education purported to serve citizens in enhancing their individual development and individual interests, as if they were autonomous and disconnected from any national agenda. From a competing perspective, in an overview of post-1950s phases in national public policy regarding education in the United States, Spring has identified the following uses of schools: to end poverty in the 1960s; to establish law and order and end unemployment in the 1970s; and to solve problems of international trade in the 1980s.1
