The summary doesn't match the report: African Americans. The relatively low mean of the distribution of African-American intelligence test scores has been discussed for many years. Although studies using different tests and samples yield a range of results, the Black mean is typically about one standard deviation (about 15 points) below that of Whites (Loehlin et al, 1975; Jensen, 1980; Reynolds et al, 1987). The difference is largest on those tests (verbal or non-verbal) that best represent the general intelligence factor g (Jensen, 1985). It is possible, however, that this differential is diminishing. In the most recent re-standardization of the Stanford-Binet test, the Black/White differential was 13 points for younger children and 10 points for older children (Thorndike et al, 1986). In several other studies of children since 1980, the Black mean has consistently been over 90 and the differential has been in single digits (Vincent, 1991). Larger and more definitive studies are needed before this trend can be regarded as established.
Another reason to think the IQ mean might be changing is that the Black/ White differential in achievement scores has diminished substantially in the last few years. Consider, for example, the mathematics achievement of five year olds as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The differential between Black and White scores, about 1.1 standard deviations as recently as 1978, had shrunk to .65 SD by 1990 (Grissmer et al, 1994) because of Black gains. Hispanics showed similar but smaller gains; there was little change in the scores of Whites. Other assessments of school achievement also show substantial recent gains in the performance of minority children. In their own analysis of these gains, Grissmer et al (1994) cite both demographic factors and the effects of public policy. They found the level of parents' education to be a particularly good predictor of children's' school achievement; that level increased for all groups between 1970 and 1990, but most sharply for Blacks. Family size was another good predictor (children from smaller families tend to achieve higher scores); here too, the largest change over time was among Blacks. Above and beyond these demographic effects, Grissmer et al believe that some of the gains can be attributed to the many specific programs, geared to the education of minority children, that were implemented during that period. On 11/1/07, Gruss Gott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Larry wrote: > > Perhaps this article, taken from the APA's response to Herrnstein's Bell > > Curve, > > Uhhhhh ... didn't you just SUPPORT Dr. Watson's statement? What you > just posted said there's a non-test related differential in > intelligence between blacks and whites, but that it's not explainable: > > > The differential between the mean intelligence test scores of Blacks and > > Whites (about one standard deviation does not result from any obvious > > biases in test construction and administration, nor does it simply reflect > > differences in socio-economic status. > > Let's review Dr. Watson's statement: > > "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence > is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really." > > Your post says that the testing does indeed show that "Blacks [score] > one standard deviation [lower]", but that "At present, no one knows > what causes this differential" > > DISCLAIMER: I neither endorse nor support any statements by Dr. Watson > nor Larry, nor Larry's citation; I am simply summarizing them for the > reader. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Download the latest ColdFusion 8 utilities including Report Builder, plug-ins for Eclipse and Dreamweaver updates. http;//www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5adobecf8%5Fbeta Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:245636 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
