Posted on 02/05/2008 12:04:30 PM PST by GoldwaterInstitute
Appalachazona? : Hispanic students excelling in other states with similar per-student spending
Matthew Ladner Goldwater Institute Daily Email February 05, 2008
Last week I refuted the notion that the rising Hispanic population will doom the Southwest to becoming the Appalachia of the 21st century with data from Florida. I’ve dug into the numbers further, and they tell an extraordinary story.
Figure 1 presents reading scores from Florida and Arizona for all students. Looking at the data, the obvious question to ask: what happened after 1998? Two words: Jeb Bush.
Jeb Bush was elected Governor of Florida in 1998, and implemented a tough reform program of rigorous academic standards and parental choice. Florida is the only state to do more than Arizona to expand parental choice in education in recent years, and unlike Arizona, its testing program has not been watered down.
Figures 2 and 3 present the truly awe-inspiring scale of the radical success of those reforms. Florida’s Hispanic students overtook all Arizona students by 2002. This isn’t a fluke. Florida’s Hispanic students outscore all Arizona students in fourth grade math and eighth grade reading as well. At current rates of improvement, Florida’s African American students will tie the Arizona average for all students by next year.
Florida spends about the same amount per pupil as Arizona, has a higher percentage of low-income children, and has a majority-minority K-12 population.
Florida’s lawmakers were able to put aside partisan bickering to enact a set of far-reaching education reforms in 1999 based on tough standards and parental choice and the results are clear. It is time for Arizona to follow suit.
Matthew Ladner is vice president of research at the Goldwater Institute
The wiki article points to all the criticisms and the link to the Pioneer Fund.
Beyond all that, in study after after study in genetics, genes always take a back seat to environment. Likewise, there is always more variablity within a gene pool than there is between gene pools.
Are you Steve Sailor?
Carolyn
Carolyn
Carolyn
Remember how people in Arkansas feel if you ever get the urge to run us down. There is a very good thing about this though. A lot of undesirables will think they are too good to rub elbows with hillbillies and will shun us. ;0)
Main Entry: Ap·pa·la·chia
Pronunciation: \ˌa-pə-ˈlā-chə, -ˈla-chə, -ˈlā-shə\ Function: geographical name
region E United States comprising Appalachian Mountains from S central New York to central Alabama
Well, many Appalachian folks are moving to all points of the compass. I ended up in Pennsylvania, and another guy I ran into from back home (Buchanan County) works in a high-end furniture store in Waynesboro. Also, I actually ran into another girl from Gate City, Virginia who works at Cheers in Boston.
We actually say Appa-LA-chia with a short "a" rather than a long "a".
Regardless, Jeb Bush and Florida public schools are nothing to brag about. The HS graduation rate is pretty low.
No, I try my very hardest not to "believe" in anything. All I do is look at the numbers.
genes always take a back seat to environment
Sadly, that's false.
All other things being equal, nature is vastly superior to nurture; environment has only very marginal, very transient effects on intellectual prowess [i.e. with extreme pedagogical submersion, you can raise test scores by a few points for a very brief time, but once the kids leave the program, and move on with their lives, you get an "If you don't use it, you lose it" deterioration of what had appeared to be increased intellectual acumen].
Likewise, there is always more variablity within a gene pool than there is between gene pools.
That's a meaningless statement.
Are you Steve Sailor?
No, although I do correspond with him.
PS: Listen, I can't talk much more openly about this question for fear of provoking the wrath of the Admin Moderator, and it's imperative that this account not be banned.
But if you care about the future of your family, then start making plans for how you are going to survive in the worst possible social chaos: Circa 2020, our nation will simply fall apart at the seams from unsustainable demographic imperatives.
As a starter exercise, spend an afternoon reading and contemplating all of the stories at The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit, and try to come up with strategies for surviving in a dystopic future like that.
Because that future is coming for you [and yours], and if you don't prepare for it [now], then it's going to swallow you up into the vortex, and you [and yours] will be vanquished from the annals of human history.
Oh, the Shenandoah valley is absolutely gorgeous!
Excuse me?
I understand your worries about getting banned. They usually do that to people who’s views are based on ignorance, hate, and racism.
Correct. Thank you for clarifying that. IIRC, it was during the “War on Poverty” that the pronunciation became corrupted.
Carolyn
You haven't seen who's picking the oranges, have you? Yes, there is a large concentration of Cubans in the south of the state, but Florida has its share of Mexicans and Central Americans.
You do have a valid point, though, that to be a really meaningful comparison, a study ought to weigh how many years -- or generations -- the kids' families have been in the US.
For the record, I am the one in this conversation who has been arguing AGAINST ignorance, hate, and racism, and who has been on the receiving end of ignorance, hate, and racism from YOU.
No, to make it a "meaningful comparison", you have to compare like groups of people.
If you compare unlike groups of people, you are going to get unlike results [which is pretty much tautologous].
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