[Ballygrl]

The NY Times doesn’t say what the test score were after Obama gave his acceptance speech. Why wouldn’t they give out that info?

[NeoConfederate]

Cool! Does that mean they won’t be dumb enough to get pregnant and go for abortions and/or welfare?

[Old Sarge]

Under the beneficent eyes of The One (piss be upon him):

the seas will fall,
the world will cool,
the ice in your non-alcoholic beverage of choice will not melt,
the dead will vote,
the children will dance and sing with gumdrop smiles,
each one of you will get free stuff and not have to pay for anything...

(I think I’m going to be ill)

[The_Reader_David]

Actually, it may be a real effect (not on actual intelligence or academic prowess, but on measured intelligence and academic prowess): Obama has made it acceptable, no, more than acceptable, cool for black folk to speak standard English!

It may be that fear of ‘acting white’ was suppressing test scores among black kids, and Obama’s rise to power has cured that phobia by example—act like Obama, not like the previous role-model, the local drug dealer with the wad of cash and pimped out ride.

[stylin19a]

Had to go to timbuktu to get the stats

The results varied according to when the students took the test.

Before the convention and in early October, the performance gap was as wide as ever: white students got a median score of 12.1 compared to blacks’ 8.8 before the convention;

the scores were 12.9 and 8.4, respectively, in early October.

But just after Obama’s convention speech, and just after election day, “when Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garnered national attention,” as the researchers put it, there was a remarkable effect.

Among students who watched Obama’s speech, blacks’ and whites’ scores were statistically equal (10.3 vs. 12.1) after the acceptance speech and 9.8 vs. 11.1 after election day. The difference is considered statistically insignificant--that is, likely due to chance.

holy crappola...talk about cherry picking...and "statistically insignificant" is in the eye of the beholder, as they haven't said how many blacks and how many whites watched what.

[popdonnelly]

It’s a cult.

[Doohickey]

Okay, so the story is just so much drivel.

But.

If Fauxbama can influence just one black kid to take an interest in becoming educated, that would be a good thing.

Not good enough to balance out the four years of hell we’re about to go through, but good nonetheless.

[Revolting cat!]

It’s been tried. Nixon, and, believe it or not, Mr Dynamite James Brown. ‘Stay in School’ or something like that was the slogan. It worked out real well!