Claims

Demanding excellence for the many rather than the few is questionable, and academic excellence defined as test success is too narrow

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · theoretical r1 · q1
Currency · newest study 1962 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 1967: baselines and conditions change
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on an ERIC document (a report, conference paper or thesis). It is kept because a design page cites it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q1 i? Excellence for all may reduce itself to excellence for the few, as in Europe, and equating excellence with success on college entrance tests is too narrow. → Jenkins 1962

Evidence

Jenkins 1962

Jenkins, William A. (1962). Time That Is Intolerant. Elementary English. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED030640

q1 · i? · theoretical · r1

Argument in the 'Our Concern with Excellence' section, citing Professor Foshay's question of numbers ("No other nation has asked excellence save for the few. We must have excellence for the many.") and the French tutoring-for-examinations example.

"In earnestness, I must now say that excellence for all may well reduce itself to excellence for the few, as has been the case in Europe for many years."

Discussion

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id excellence-for-all-questionable
title Demanding excellence for the many rather than the few is questionable, and academic excellence defined as test success is too narrow
description Demanding excellence for the many rather than the few is questionable, and academic excellence defined as test success is too narrow
status review
evidence_strength weak
newest_evidence 1962
recheck_by 1967
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-09-27
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — jenkins-1962

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