“Low IQ can be a problem. Bad parenting can be a problem. Bad schools can be a problem.”
As I’ve noted before on the IQ side - yes, there is the Bell Curve. But there is also a left side of the Bell Curve and I’ve worked with a number of blacks that can easily hold their ground against the non-blacks I’ve worked with. In order to blame the Bell Curve for 23 SCHOOLS failing to provide one student who meets math standards only makes sense if there’s no more than about 6 students in each school, since any higher count would result in at least one kid being smart enough to at leader meet our already-meager standards. So toss that one out.
As to parenting - there are many thousands (probably millions) of success stories of immigrants who come here, don’t speak a word of English, and then watch their kids graduate from top universities. So unless black parents are actively telling their kids to fail, I’d rule that out too, since immigrants have proven that parents are NOT required for success in school - at least given the times and places they were educated.
Finally it’s the schools...and that is the answer. If the schools do not want the kids to get an education, and the parents are unable to help - guess what, there’s no one left, even for those on the left side of the Bell Curve.
Which leads to one final question, which most other parents, even conservatives, conveniently ignore, since public schools are FREE, after all: Considering that the people running Baltimore Schools, who we know hate us, also run our public schools, what exactly, are they doing to our children in our schools, our ‘wonderful’ public schools???
It’s a rhetorical question since the answer DOES NOT MATTER, as long as the schools stay ‘free’. Right?
It’s the right hand side of the bell curve that is the high iq side
Not so fast. Higher IQ students tend to come from higher IQ parents, who would chose not to live in Baltimore or Chicago, or, if they do, have higher paying jobs that allow them to send their children to private schools. Thus the use of 1 in 6 students (equivalent to 16% of the population with an IQ above 115) is not likely to represent the IQ distribution of Baltimore or Chicago public schools.
However, with the total school population in Baltimore or Chicago, the claim that there would be at least one student meeting the reading or math standard is a reasonable point.
Also, since the Bell Curve IQ distribution applies to parents, bad or lack of parenting skills could be compounding the effect of the student IQ distribution.
Finally, the Bell Curve IQ distribution also applies to public school teachers, and given the conditions in Baltimore and Chicago, are not likely to fit the normal IQ distribution.
Compounding all of this is the type of political and social culture that exists in Baltimore and Chicago.
It is probable that all of these combine to result in the failure of students in these schools to meet minimum standards.