Posted on 01/03/2023 2:45:19 PM PST by grundle
Racial and ethnic disparities in advanced math and science skills occur far earlier in the U.S. than previously known. Our new study finds that 13% of white students and 16% of Asian students display advanced math skills by kindergarten. The contrasting percentage for both Black and Hispanic students is 4%.
These disparities then continue to occur throughout elementary school. By fifth grade, 13% of white students and 22% of Asian students display advanced math skills. About 2% of Black students and 3% of Hispanic students do so. Similar disparities occur in advanced science skills.
What explains these disparities? Factors that consistently explain these disparities include the family’s socioeconomic status – such as parental education and household income – and the student’s own understanding of math, science and reading during kindergarten.
We observed these findings in analyses of a nationally representative sample of about 11,000 U.S. elementary school students. The students were followed from the start of kindergarten until the end of fifth grade. Why it matters
Fewer than 10% of U.S. scientists and engineers are Black or Hispanic.
Racial and ethnic disparities in advanced math and science skills are constraining the country’s scientific innovation and economic competitiveness. Students who display advanced math skills early are more likely to later obtain doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and math fields – collectively called STEM – and to become scientists or inventors.
Yet little has been known about how early racial and ethnic disparities in advanced math and science skills emerge. This information could help inform efforts to support students of color at a key time of child development.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Or maybe, just maybe, certain races are genetically predispositioned towards different talents. But by all means let’s just keep tilting at the “systemic racism” windmill”. Onward Rocinante! Onward Sancho! We have knights to slay!
“The fallacy is assuming all races have equal capabilities in every type of skill. That has never been proven. It is just wishful thinking.”
Is it race or is it culture? Many Asian and European cultures promote reading, writing and arithmetic at an early age.
The percentage of white students who demonstrate advanced math skills remains consistent from kindergarten through 5th grade. Among Asians, this percentage increases over time.
Among black and Hispanic students, the percentage actually DECLINES. This can only mean that many young children in these groups who understand advanced mathematics lose these capabilities over time. That’s not genetics. It’s something else entirely.
So? Where does afformative action manipullationingationing reciprocipalitationing give back program fit in. 10 percent sounds pretty generous to a foot dragging numerally challenged segment of the herd.
It is race. How many Asian football or basketball players are there? People will accept physical differences but not other differences. There is no reason why there not differences.
The liberal remedy will pry be to throw MORE money at it or to hold back white & Asian kids until they’re 6 or older. Either way, the high-performing kids, like my grandkids, will suffer.
I have subscribed to Scientific American since the 1980s.
Another reason not to!”
It’s no longer Scientific, nor American.
I loved reading Scientific American many years ago. I also loved National Geographic. I even subscribed to the Smithsonian Magazine. Several years ago I canceled all of them. I still subscribe to Archeology and American Spectator. I actually was able to participate in some Central American archaeology until it became clear there was no way to fund a home mortgage that way. The PhD in charge of the dig had nice digs, and it was an amazing experience.
Actually it should I haven’t subscribed to SciAm since the 1980s.
I sure wish you could go back and edit!
Agree it is indeed neither ‘Scientific’ or ‘American’!
IMO, it means that they quickly pick up and understand advanced concepts when presented to them. Two digit numbers, multiplication, fractions, variables, etc.
I recommend: Human Diversity: by Charles Murray.
It does much to show how biological differences in four-seven human ancestral population groups have been found to be significant.
They roughly correspond to African, East Asian, European, North and South American (much in common with East Asian), the Middle East, Central Asia, and Oceania.
His sister is almost 8 and smart too, but her intelligence isn’t as obvious until you talk to her. She has great social skills and is extremely creative, while my grandson’s forte now is math and science and things like Robotics. Same parents but different kids. Genetics is fascinating.
I agree that it starts very early in a child’s life. But one thing that has been ignored is unconscious attitudes toward science and math, especially math.
If the parents make a horrible face when math is mentioned, say it was their worse subject, or talk about how boring, useless, and hard it is, the attitude is embedded very young and is therefore immutable.
In other families, math and science are spoken about in terms of how fascinating they are. Or it is just a natural part of life and learning, without anything having to be said or taught about how wonderful it is.
Why are people who don’t believe in the Bell Curve not considered “anti-science”?
Maybe someone should have told me that before I became one, but then my Mom and Dad taught me to only fear the L-rd, and not to listen to anyone who told me I could not do something ...
but I'm sure more billions will solve their family issues.
There is and always will be the Big Truth Elephant in the room that every one tries to ignore. It’s called the “Bell Curve” by Charles Murray.
>>Is it race or is it culture?
I used to think that mattered a lot.
Now I think that for time periods of several decades, culture is almost as fixed as genetics.
Another little guy figured out complex maths after he learned simple mathematics at five. He's a computer scientist today.
Yes, they are white. No, their parents were not even university graduates. Just caring parents.
Parents should look to Dr. Ben Carson as a role model. Growing up in poverty, with an illiterate single mother, he became one of the leading physician/scientists of our time. The reason was because his mother knew the power of reading, and required him to become a prolific reader. He learned not because of his poor public schools, but in spite of them, only because of his reading skills.
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