In this historical study the author provides a critical interpretation of selected movements that have shaped the educational state in America during the 20th century. Two questions provide the thematic structure of the book. The first question concerns the role, function, and responsibility of the professional in the educational state; the second raises the issues of how and why the system was rationalized in the minds of some key educators with distinct race, sex, and class biases. Each of the 10 chapters contains key primary source documents that were used in the initial interpretation. Topics in the book include: (1) academic freedom and responsibility; (2) modification of professional roles; (3) policing professors and students in the educational state; (4) rationalizing the meritocratic state; (5) testing, predicting, sorting, and tracking; (6) IQ, dysgenics (the study of racial degeneration), and racism; (7) toward a differentiated curriculum based on class, race, and sex; (8) immigration restriction and Americanization; (9) the nature-nurture debate; and (10) dysgenics and applied raceology. (Author/DE)