Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Test Scores Show a Decline in Math Among High School Seniors
New York Times ^ | April 27, 2016 | Kate Zernike

Posted on 04/27/2016 6:10:02 AM PDT by reaganaut1

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-67 last
To: Night Hides Not

Well, I am a woman who has no use for video games of any sort. But I love to learn, especially about the history of Western civilization. I had never heard of your video game, but I did a search and discovered that there is a board game version of “Civilization”, which I just may have to buy. The husband won’t be too interested, but he’ll join in when my adult sons come to visit. :)


61 posted on 04/27/2016 1:16:20 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Keep calm and Pray on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: elpadre

Good question. They would probably think that you’re talking about some sort of furniture.


62 posted on 04/27/2016 1:17:27 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Keep calm and Pray on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Yes, yes. But more importantly, how do the students feel about their mathematical prowess?


63 posted on 04/27/2016 1:18:59 PM PDT by yuleeyahoo ( Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him. - Groucho Marx)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Night Hides Not

“My youngest son just turned 14, and has been acting like a typical teenager, working overtime to send his mother and me to an early grave. “

I had a son like that.

It was incredible but we rode it out.

He’s 50 years old now-———doing just fine and well educated. A very well read, smart guy.

.


64 posted on 04/27/2016 1:19:18 PM PDT by Mears
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1
In grade school I hated arithmetic. I couldn't add a column of numbers twice and get the same answer.

In high school I took what was called a Preference Test (not an aptitude test). I was told my preferred job would be as a mathematician. I thought the result was crazy. I knew I wanted to be a physicist

Well, things have a way of surprising you. I did indeed get a Bachelor's in physics, but ended up getting a PhD in mathematics. Most of my career was spent working as a mathematician. No, I still can't add, but as one of my math profs said, mathematics is the art of calculating, as little as possible. Algebra, trig, calculus, differential equations: I spent probably 40 years doing those and enjoying it.

65 posted on 04/27/2016 2:09:20 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney (,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kabar
I have read Murray and believe he is correct. In the US, with our 'racial intermingling', I believe culture is turning out to be the biggest impact. But on an individual level (not group level as statistics are calculated), blaming culture/genes is a cop out. Even people hovering at 95 IQ or below can get to a certain competence level. Not everyone needs to be a rocket scientist.

In addition, we can blame 'no child left behind' and mainstreaming, etc for this decline. No sense in letting the government of the hook.

66 posted on 04/29/2016 1:45:56 PM PDT by Patriotic1 (Dic mihi solum facta, domina - Just the facts, ma'am)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Patriotic1
I have read Murray and believe he is correct. In the US, with our 'racial intermingling', I believe culture is turning out to be the biggest impact. But on an individual level (not group level as statistics are calculated), blaming culture/genes is a cop out. Even people hovering at 95 IQ or below can get to a certain competence level. Not everyone needs to be a rocket scientist.

Yes, individuals can be exceptions to the overall trend or group findings. This is what Murray said 20 years after the book was published:

First, a little background: Why did Dick and I talk about race at all? Not because we thought it was important on its own. In fact, if we lived in a society where people were judged by what they brought to the table as individuals, group differences in IQ would be irrelevant. But we were making pronouncements about America’s social structure (remember that the book’s subtitle is “Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life”). If we hadn’t discussed race, “The Bell Curve” would have been dismissed on grounds that “Herrnstein and Murray refuse to confront the reality that IQ tests are invalid for blacks, which makes their whole analysis meaningless.” We had to establish that in fact IQ tests measure the same thing in blacks as in whites, and doing so required us to discuss the elephant in the corner, the mean difference in test scores between whites and blacks. Here’s what Dick and I said: There is a mean di>ference in black and white scores on mental tests, historically about one standard deviation in magnitude on IQ tests (IQ tests are normed so that the mean is 100 points and the standard deviation is 15). This difference is not the result of test bias, but reflects differences in cognitive functioning. The predictive validity of IQ scores for educational and socioeconomic outcomes is about the same for blacks and whites.

Those were our confidently stated conclusions about the black-white difference in IQ, and none of them was scientifically controversial. See the report of the task force on intelligence that the American Psychological Association formed in the wake of the furor over “The Bell Curve.” What’s happened in the 20 years since then? Not much. The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows a small narrowing of the gap between 1994 and 2012 on its reading test for 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds (each by the equivalent of about 3 IQ points), but hardly any change for 17-year-olds (about 1 IQ-point-equivalent). For the math test, the gap remained effectively unchanged for all three age groups.

On the SAT, the black-white difference increased slightly from 1994 to 2014 on both the verbal and math tests. On the reading test, it rose from .91 to .96 standard deviations. On the math test, it rose from .95 to 1.03 standard deviations.

If you want to say that the NAEP and SAT results show an academic achievement gap instead of an IQ gap, that’s fine with me, but it doesn’t change anything. The mean group difference for white and African American young people as they complete high school and head to college or the labor force is effectively unchanged since 1994. Whatever the implications were in 1994, they are about the same in 2014.

There is a disturbing codicil to this pattern. A few years ago, I wrote a long technical article about black-white changes in IQ scores by birth cohort. I’m convinced that the convergence of IQ scores for blacks and whites born before the early 1970s was substantial, though there’s still room for argument. For blacks and whites born thereafter, there has been no convergence.

Interviewer: The flashpoint of the controversy about race and IQ was about genes. If you mention “The Bell Curve” to someone, they’re still likely to say “Wasn’t that the book that tried to prove blacks were genetically inferior to whites?” How do you respond to that?

Actually, Dick and I got that reaction even while we were working on the book. As soon as someone knew we were writing a book about IQ, the first thing they assumed was that it would focus on race, and the second thing they assumed was that we would be talking about genes. I think psychiatrists call that “projection.” Fifty years from now, I bet those claims about “The Bell Curve” will be used as a textbook case of the hysteria that has surrounded the possibility that black-white differences in IQ are genetic. Here is the paragraph in which Dick Herrnstein and I stated our conclusion:

"If the reader is now convinced that either the genetic or environmental explanation has won out to the exclusion of the other, we have not done a sufficiently good job of presenting one side or the other. It seems highly likely to us that both genes and the environment have something to do with racial differences. What might the mix be? We are resolutely agnostic on that issue; as far as we can determine, the evidence does not yet justify an estimate. (p. 311)"

That’s it. The whole thing. The entire hateful Herrnstein-Murray pseudoscientific racist diatribe about the role of genes in creating the black-white IQ difference. We followed that paragraph with a couple pages explaining why it really doesn’t make any difference whether the differences are caused by genes or the environment. But nothing we wrote could have made any difference. The lesson, subsequently administered to James Watson of DNA fame, is that if you say it is likely that there is any genetic component to the black-white difference in test scores, the roof crashes in on you.

On this score, the roof is about to crash in on those who insist on a purely environmental explanation of all sorts of ethnic differences, not just intelligence. Since the decoding of the genome, it has been securely established that race is not a social construct, evolution continued long after humans left Africa along different paths in different parts of the world, and recent evolution involves cognitive as well as physiological functioning.

The best summary of the evidence is found in the early chapters of Nicholas Wade’s recent book, “A Troublesome Inheritance.” We’re not talking about another 20 years before the purely environmental position is discredited, but probably less than a decade. What happens when a linchpin of political correctness becomes scientifically untenable? It should be interesting to watch. I confess to a problem with schadenfreude.

In addition, we can blame 'no child left behind' and mainstreaming, etc for this decline. No sense in letting the government of the hook.

It starts with the family and individual responsibility. And there is no doubt that poverty, physical well-being, and other environmental factors play a role. Even under the worst circumstances a Ben Carson or Clarence Thomas can emerge.

Hispanics and blacks have the highest school dropout rates. They are doomed to be at the bottom of the economic ladder unless they acquire work skills or an education afterwards. We have a permanent underclass that is growing.


67 posted on 04/29/2016 2:15:57 PM PDT by kabar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-67 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson