[Rhodes22-list] Some Public School Programs Work Pretty Well

[Steve Alm]

Brad,

I admit I'm a little fuzzy on The Bell Curve.  I can't find my copy and it's
been nearly ten years since we dealt with it in my ed admin classes at the
Univ. of MN, but didn't it go something like this:

Years before that book was written, people noticed that blacks consistently
scored about 10% lower than whites on the Stanford-Binet test.  That's the
test most commonly used back then to determine what is called IQ.  So there
was a huge push for about twenty years to revise the SB test in order to
level the cultural/racial playing field.  After all, that 10% gap must
indicate a problem with the test.  After everybody was finished tinkering
with it and subjects were tested again, the results were the same--a 10%
difference.  Therefore, claimed Murray and Herrnstein, that settles
it--blacks are 10% dumber than whites.  And I hope it goes without saying
I'm summarizing THEIR study.

This goes far beyond the PC issue.  The importance of the test results is
not just how it reflects on those who are tested, but it's what society does
with that information.  These results affect policy decision-making,
funding, staffing and curriculum.  For example, people used these results to
lobby against programs like Head Start.  If blacks are 10% dumber to begin
with, why waste resources trying to get them on a par with whites?  Or
whether or not to give blacks a 10% break on entrance exams.  Or civil
service tests.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Yeah, Murray was
crucified by some.  Practically beatified by others.  People tend to use
information like this to further their agendas.  Therein lies the danger.
It's much, much more than a cottage industry of PC as you put it.

Where does this leave us today?  We must continue to conduct vigorous
research on testing for intelligence.  I'm not sure how much the SB test is
still used although I suspect less and less, but there's a whole host of new
studies being done.  Howard Gardner on multiple intelligence, for example.
We now recognize things like emotional intelligence and artistic or
aesthetic  intelligence (I like that one).

Here's an interesting little tidbit:  As recently as the early 1900's,
immigrants coming through Ellis Island were given intelligence tests.  The
test was written in English.  Guess what they found?  Brits and Irish were
found to be intelligent.  Germans, French, Italians were not.

> Students attempt to meet the standards that are set
> for them at home.  If those standards or even a
> functioning home is missing, performance will suffer.
> It is beyond the function of the education system to
> fix those problems.

Thank you for saying that--we agree.

Slim

On 10/7/04 12:02 PM, "brad haslett" <flybrad at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Todd,
> 
> You may recall a controversial book that was published
> in 1994 titled "The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class
> Stucture in American Life" by Herrnstein and Murray.
> Herrnstein had the good sense to die before
> publication which left Charles Murray alone to defend
> chapter 13.  His studies showed that Asian-Americans
> tested slightly higher in IQ than other groups but
> this alone wouldn't account for their superior
> academic performance.  He was crucified by the PC
> police.  
> 
> Students attempt to meet the standards that are set
> for them at home.  If those standards or even a
> functioning home is missing, performance will suffer.
> It is beyond the function of the education system to
> fix those problems.
> 
> Some public schools work because the communities where
> they are located work.  Merging functioning schools
> with non-functioning ones generally drag both down.
> This is not a racist view, this is what we used to
> call common sense before the cottage industry of
> political correctness was developed.
> 
> Brad Haslett
> "CoraShen"
> 
> 
> --- Todd Tavares <sprocket80 at mail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>    Roger,
>> 
>>        We HAD something like that here in Maryland,
>> called the MSPAP.  I
>>    was initally to used to gage how well the schools
>> were teaching the
>>    pupils.  The schools had to pass and each year
>> show an improvement or
>>    face take-over by the state BOE.
>> 
>>        We unfortunately did not reap such positive
>> results.  Instead, the
>>    results were twisted and used by a certain
>> racially based "lobbyist"
>>    group (no names here), to show that minority
>> children did universally
>>    worse than their white counterparts.  The test
>> was supposed to be
>>    blind and the children's sex, ethnic and economic
>> information was
>>    never to be recorded...but it was.
>> 
>>        A committee was formed by the state Board of
>> Ed to find out why
>>    the minority children....all except a group named
>> the "Asian/Pacific
>>    Islander Group"...were scoring poorly.   The
>> committee spent two years
>>    and generated a 208 page report.  I studied the
>> report in painstaking
>>    detail.  The conclusion was 11 reasons grouped
>> into three main root
>>    causes.  Poverty, Lack of parental involvement,
>> and low self esteem.
>>    When explaining why the Asian/Pacific Islander
>> Group children (approx
>>    2%) scored consistently highest in all grades and
>> genders, the
>>    committee came up  with a statement..to
>> paraphrase it...It is widely
>>    known that Asian students are generally the
>> smarter.
>> 
>>        Poverty meant that the children were under
>> nourished, could not
>>    buy paper and pencils, etc.  Lack of parental
>> involvement is
>>    self-explanatory.  Low self esteem was sort of a
>> catch-all for every
>>    other excuse.  Low self esteem came from low self
>> worth in males
>>    because of the absence of a male role model in
>> the home setting;
>>    and the instructional material did not reflect
>> enough people of color
>>    or their heritage.  That is about the only point
>> I could have agreed
>>    with. etc, etc, etc.
>> 
>>        The state budgeted monies and came up with
>> very loose guidelines
>>    for the counties to follow as far as what types
>> of programs and
>>    activities to provide to the minoritiy students.
>> This money was to
>>    specifically help only minority students who were
>> scoring poorly.  The
>>    counties in turn passed the money out to the
>> schools and left it up to
>>    individual principals to decide how to use it.
>> (within the vague
>>    guidelines mandated by the state BOE)  There was
>> no accountability at
>>    all.   At my sons' elementary school there was
>> free breakfast and
>>    lunch for minority children, free before and
>> after daycare for
>>    minority children, they had the "BBC'......the
>> black boys club which
>>    held field trips, pizza parties and more
>> exclusively for "african
>>    american" students. Hispanic, Asian and all other
>> minority students
>>    were excluded....community mentoring and big
>> brother programs, etc.
>>    The principal was African American, and she too k
>> all of the money
>>    given out by the state, all money budgeted for
>> the gifted and talented
>>    program, and even bullied the PTA into opening
>> their accounts to her
>>    for the stealing.
>> 
>>      One of the county Board of Ed members is a
>> friend of ours. When she
>>    spoke out against the testing and kept her
>> children home during that
>>    week, she was publicly censured by the Board,
>> received a gag order
>>    and  was threatened with legal action for not
>> having her children at
>>    in school.
>> 
>>      Thankfully so much negative publicity was
>> generated that the state
>>    stopped this particular test.  Now we have "No
>> Child Left Behind" and
>>    no funding.
>> 
>>        My brother and sister-in-law have their
>> daughter in a Catholic
>>    school. There are less programs and resources
>> available than in public
>>    schools.  They face a different set of problems
>> though.  My niece did
>>    not do very well last year, but she was advanced
>> anyway.  When I was
>>    discussing this with my brother-in-law, he
>> reasoned that she must have
>>    done enough or she would not have been advanced
>> to the next grade.  I
>>    could not contain my laughter.  I looked him in
>> the eye and asked, "Do
>>    you think they would admit that they dropped the
>> ball on educating
>>    your daughter and then look you in the eye and
>> ask for another $6000
>>    to repeat the sixth grade? Come on!!"
>> 
>>       Schooling is like anything else.  You only get
>> out what you put
>>    in.  We stay very involved with our kids
>> schooling.  -proactive and
>>    not reactiveand so far it has paid-off.
>> 
>>    Todd
>> 
>>    ----- Original Message -----
>>    From: "Roger Pihlaja"
>>    Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 08:22:27 -0400
>>    To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list"
>>    Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Some Public School
>> Programs Work Pretty Well
>>> Here in Michigan, we have a test called the
>> Michigan Education
>>    Assessment Program (MEAP). It tests skills in
>> math, science, reading,
>>    writing, and critical thinking. Students that
>> score highly in the 9th,
>>    10th, 11th, & 12th grades on all sections of the
>> MEAP test can earn up
>>    to $3000 towards attending a Michigan college.
>> Our older son, Daniel,
>>    maxed out on the MEAP award money & it helped
>> tremendously in paying
>>    for his college at Northern Michigan University
>> (NMU). So far, our
>>    younger son, Gary, is on track to max out as
>> well. I've seen the MEAP
>>    test & it seems like a pretty reasonable tool to
>> access a student's
>>    level of development. But, the MEAP test has been
>> controversial here
>>    in Michig an as well. Lots of educators don't
>> like it for all the
>>    reasons cited in the earlier posts on this
>> subject.
>>> 
>>> Schools of choice also seems to work pretty
>> well here in Michigan.
>>    Again, both of our sons have benefited. We live
>> in the Meridian School
>>    District, a rural area that is not very wealthy.
>> Meridian High School
>>    does not have a very good vocational education
>> program. However, they
>>    supplement their program by participating in a
>> magnet school program
>>    with the Bay-Arenac Skill Center, located in Bay
>> City, MI. Note that
>>    the Bay-Arenac Skill Center is located in another
>> county, about 30
>>    miles away. The Meridian School District pays
>> tuition and provides bus
>>    transportation for our students to & from the
>> Bay-Arenac Skill Center.
>>    The program is a half day, 5 days/week. Meridian
>> High School students
>>    either take their morning or afternoon classes at
>> Meridian and then
>>    the other half of the school day at the
>> Bay-Arenac Skill Center.
>>    Daniel took 2 years of Computer Aided Design
>> classes at the Bay-Arenac
>>    Skill Center, which has been very helpful in his
>> Graphic
>>    Arts/Electronic Imaging major up at NMU. Gary has
>> benefited from this
>>    program even more than Daniel. Last year, Gary
>> took his first year of
>> 
> === message truncated ===
> 
> 
> 
> 
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