Posted on 01/13/2012 2:44:23 PM PST by reaganaut1
DURHAM — Black students at Duke University are angry over a university research paper that found African-American undergraduates at the school are disproportionally more likely to switch from tough majors to easier ones.
“The implications and intentions of this research at the hands of our very own prestigious faculty, seemingly without a genuine concern for proactively furthering the well-being of the black community is hurtful and alienating,” wrote the officers of Duke’s Black Student Alliance in an email sent to the state NAACP.
The letter from Nana Asante, president of the alliance, challenged the faculty members involved in the research and the university administration to consider “what image has this … report portrayed to the rest of the country, namely our peer institutions, about Duke and its black students?”
The unpublished report, “What Happens After Enrollment? An Analysis of the Time Path of Racial Differences in GPA and Major Choice,” looked at the Duke freshman classes that matriculated in 2001 and 2002, in their first, second and fourth years of college.
It found that among students who initially expressed an interest in majoring in economics, engineering and the natural sciences, 54 percent of black men and 51 percent of black women ended up switching to the humanities or another social science.
By comparison, 33 percent of white women and just 8 percent of white men made the switch to majors that are considered less rigorous, require less study and have easier grading standards.
According to the paper, 68 percent of Duke’s black students but less than 55 percent of white students ended up majoring in the humanities or social sciences other than economics.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com ...
If affirmative action results in minority students at elite schools having much potential but weak preparation, then we may expect minority students to start o§ behind their majority counterparts and then catch up over time. Indeed, at the private university we analyze, the gap between white and black grade point averages falls by half between the studentsífreshmen and senior year. However, this convergence masks two e§ects. First, the variance of grades given falls across time. Hence, shrinkage in the level of the gap may not imply shrinkage in the class rank gap. Second, grading standards di§er across courses in di§erent majors. We show that controlling for these two features virtually eliminates any convergence of black/white grades. In fact, black/white gpa convergence is symptomatic of dramatic shifts by blacks from initial interest in the natural sciences, engineering, and economics to majors in the humanities and social sciences. We show that natural science, engineering, and economics courses are more di¢ cult, associated with higher study times, and have harsher grading standards; all of which translate into students with weaker academic backgrounds being less likely to choose these majors. Indeed, we show that accounting for academic background can fully account for di§erences in switching behaviors across blacks and whites.
Of course, instead of being angry at the young men and women who take the easy way out, the race hustlers blame the school.
So, the point of research is to further some goal or other?
Wow, who woulda thunkit?
Global Warming, here we come!
grading standards di§er across courses in di§erent majors.
Note to self: Do not type while hiccuping.
I wonder what the thoughts of Duke’s White Student Alliance were on the matter.
Changing majors, baloney...
I’m betting a good many of them stopped reading the paper before they finished. ;^)
Translation :
Without exploring ways to award the incompetent grades and diplomas that they can't otherwise earn...
Here we go again...
Paging Mike Adams, Mr. Mike Adams. Please pick up the red courtesy phone.
wow. all they have to do is just lower the standards and everyone passes..
“this research at the hands of our very own prestigious faculty, seemingly without a genuine concern for proactively furthering the well-being”
translation: What about our self-esteem?
“The Bell Curve”
In other news Asian Parents are still disappointed their children only got a 4.0 GPA.
If the NAACP really was interested in the ‘advancement’ of colored people (as their acronym proclaims) you’d think they would view this information as a call to action. But that’s not really what the NAACP is about now, is it?
Studying and getting good grades ain’t keepin’ it real.
OK, so the report’s findings are “...hurtful and alienating...”
But are they factual?
A number of years ago Thomas Sowell addressed the issue of affirmative action in major university acceptance standards stating that allowing minorities with substandard education backgrounds into the more academic demanding universities was dooming them to failure. And such failure would create nothing but increased hostility towards the white dominated schools and the white population in general.........
They're blaming the school for studying it and publicizing the situation.
-PJ
Dig it, bro.
This is not NEWS, just simply TRUTH.
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