Posted on 11/21/2006 12:11:38 PM PST by Alouette
Every year in Israel some 70,000 people buckle down and study for the standardized Psychometric exam, a crucial step in their hopeful pursuit of higher education. Examinees from every sector in the country take the same exact test but when the results are analyzed the gap between the Jewish and Arab averages is significant.
The National Institute for Testing and Evaluation reports a 94 point gap between the two sectors' averages, with the Arab average standing at 469 and the Jewish one at 563. Psychometric scores range between 200 and 800, and are curved based on the current year's scores as well as the scores of several years prior.
"This is a reflection of, amongst other things, the discrimination that exists in the Israeli education system," says Dr. Yoav Cohen who directs the evaluation center.
Cohen is of the opinion that the disparity is not coincidental: "The discrepancy between the Psychometric averages doesn't stem from cultural gaps in the test itself, but rather from the gaps within the education system and the differences in what the country invests (in different sectors) starting all the way from primary education."
Reliable measure?
The Psychometric exam – which can be taken in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English, French and Spanish – has long been factored into the considerations of universities and various other higher education institutions upon deciding which applicants to admit.
The exam is considered – at least in the eyes of university administrations – as a reliable and equal measure which reflects the level of those taking it as the questions are based on knowledge of one's mother-tongue, mathematic abilities and control of the English language. The center in turn says it found that people who come from schools where the education ministry invested more in will naturally score higher on their Psychometric tests.
Dr. Cohen emphasized however that the Psychometric exam actually benefits those living in outlaying areas by offering virtually unlimited retakes. "Students without a high school diploma, or with low high school grades, get a chance to significantly improve their chances of getting a higher education because of the Psychometric exam. They can retake it and the highest score they earn is the one they apply with."
The Education Ministry is aware of the Jewish-Arab divide and has formulated a five-year plan to narrow the gap. The Ministry said that within the framework of the plan, the government would invest NIS 50 million in the Arab and Bedouin sectors every year.
The ministry also said that Arab schools were being given top priority in the establishment of new laboratories and computer equipment.
Education Minister Yuli Tamir (Labor): "There's no doubt that the Psychometric exam isn't culturally neutral and there exists and gap between the Psychometric score and the abilities of the students. Evidence of this was apparent when they tried to admit students based on their high school grades – an experiment which proved successful."
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Sounds vaguely familiar. If the right ethnic group is not doing well on the test, then the test must be bad...........where, oh where, have we heard that before?.......
The Nobel Prize Committee is also discriminatory in that it has awarded some 180+ Prizes to Jews and only 4 to Arabs (including at least one terrorist, Yasser Arafat.)
Those wily Jews, they're only smarter because they discriminate better....wait....
No doubt there is a gap--the Arab students score far higher at suicide bomb making.
And why can't the obverse test of Jews in Arab lands take place?
(Oh yeah, they've been ethnically cleansed....)
Is there a psychometric test written in Arabic in Egypt, say, by and for Egyptians? If they were interested, they could translate it into different languages, administer it in Israel and see where the differences lie in performance.
There are nonverbal ability tests such as Raven's Matrixes, to which it is impossible to allege cultural bias.
You'd think that people such as those quoted in the article would first want to see what the outcomes are on a test like Raven's. Because if the results are similar, it is very hard to claim that their test is culturally biased.
Of course, there is never any interest in such a comparison. Liberals prefer to accuse society of discrimination rather than collect objective facts.
It's unfair to quiz members of outgroups about the cultures that discriminate against them. Now, a fair test would ask questions about things that Arab culture understands, like how to make explosives.
I suspect the scores would have a higher spread if Dr. Cohen's children weren't weighing down the bottom tail of the Jew bell curve.
How many Arabs have won a Nobel prize in any subject?
Arafat doesn't count. Jimmy C doesn't either.
Well it's a bad psycho test if it doesn't give arabs the worst possible score, in this case a zero.
What is the correct answer?
2+2=?
1. 5
2. 7
3. 4
4. Kill the infidel!
Eeeew! Stereotyping! Profiling! No! No! No! Evil, irrelevant, and utterly useless! Next thing you know, the same sorts of studies will be applied to all races and ethnicities across the board, we'll all become victims of the truth, and... it's common knowledge in this PC age that the truth is to be avoided or explained away at all costs!
"The discrepancy between the Psychometric averages doesn't stem from cultural gaps in the test itself, but rather from the gaps within the education system and the differences in what the country invests (in different sectors) starting all the way from primary education."
You point the finger in the wrong direction, Dr. Cohen.
As a teenager in Israel, I took the Psychometric Exam, and it's very heavily culturally slanted against the arab student. In fact, on the version I took, of 125 questions the answer to only two was "kill the infidel".
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
"This is a reflection of, amongst other things, the discrimination that exists in the Israeli education system..."
No, it is a reflection of the fact that many Arabs encourage their best and brightest to become suicide bombers instead of scholars.
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.