The revolt against the measurement of merit had profound implications for both public policy and popular opinion. The abolition of selection in state schools diminished the importance of IQ testing, and the campaign against psychometry, combined with the brouhaha about Burt's scientific methods, turned progressive opinion against the practice, convincing many that it was inaccurate and some that it was intolerable. At the same time, radicals abandoned equality of opportunity for equality of results and meritocratic allocation for minority representation. And yet, even as this new orthodoxy was implanted in the popular mind and implemented in public policy, a sustained and articulate reaction set in. Egalitarian policies failed to live up to the promises made for them; progressive teaching alienated numerous parents; and a wide range of social scientists began to turn with renewed enthusiasm to both merit and measurement.

The failure of egalitarianism

The new comprehensive schools failed to live up to the somewhat extravagant claims of their supporters. They did little to break down the cultural gap between the classes, little to promote higher rates of social mobility, and little to tap the pool of talent wasted in the secondary moderns. Indeed, many of the criticisms directed against the selective system of education might justly be levelled against the nonselective system.

In All Our Future (1968) J. W. B. Douglas sounded a discordantly pessimistic note amid the swelling chorus of praise for comprehensive schools, pointing out that reorganisation might well fail to solve the problem of educational inequality.