User:Ina301/IQ Gap

Cochran comment
The world does not look as it should under your theory. Not even close.

It’s not the money. Money doesn’t make much difference. North Dakota, before the oil boom, spent exactly the same amount per pupil as New Mexico – OK, one dollar more. $5001 per pupil vs $5000 in New Mexico. They had the highest test 8th grade test scores in the country. We were near the bottom. as we are today.

My kids go to Del Norte, not La Cueva, but they do fine.

There are rich school districts that have substantial numbers of minority kids: the kids still do poorly. So much so that there’s a consortium of such schools that searching for the mysterious reasons that this happens. Places like Evanston, Illinois : Shaker Heights, Ohio: Berkeley, California. Cheltenham, PA. Amherst, MA. Suburbs of Washington DC, full of government workers and awash with money.

Under NCLB, when kids attend schools with poor scholastic records, they have a right to be transferred to schools with better ones. Many have taken advantage of this, but on average, their scores do not improve. It’s not the schools.

Nor is there anything particularly wrong with APS teachers. There was one that pissed me off quite a bit, but he’s dead now. https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/not-yet/#comment-77516

B/W IQ gap is closing
"No recent data pose a serious challenge to our current estimates for Black IQ: 95.4 at age 4, 90.5 at age 12, and 87.0 at age 18. Today, the IQ gap between young Blacks and Whites is far less than 1.1  standard  deviations.  The  immutability  of  the Black-White IQ gap is a fiction and must be deleted from any body of evidence that genes play a causal role in producing this gap."

"Although genes affect individual differences in behavior, the effect of each individual gene is usually small."
Response:

"I think you meant to say “allele.” If the effects of individual genes are usually small, then missense mutations that completely shut off the gene and eliminate the protein should have little effect. Of course, you failed to mention the missense mutation specific to MAOA, which causes Brunner syndrome. The effect of Brunner syndrome on behavior is not small."

IQ tests are culturally biased
As Serpell (1979) found, when asked to reproduce figures from using wire, pencil and paper, and clay, Zambian children performed better in the wire task, while English children performed better in the pencil and paper task. Each group did better in the medium to which they were more accustomed. Pencil and paper IQ tests may be intrinsically biased towards Western culture.

Opponents of using intelligence tests with Black and other CLD groups often focus on the social and educational consequences—fairness and disparate impact. The primary argument and belief is that persons from backgrounds other than the culture in which the test was developed will always be penalized; they will likely score lower on the test and, thus, have their opportunities limited and face misinterpretations about their worth and potential (academically, as students, as employees, etc.). They argue that too few intelligence tests have been normed with representative numbers (not just percentages) of CLD populations. Therefore, the test scores are not valid and reliable for them, rendering the test inappropriate to use. This argument or position also applies to topics other than race and ethnicity. For example, if few in the norming group are low income or linguistically diverse, then the test is viewed as inappropriate and potentially useless and harmful to that group. Further, if few gifted students or students with learning disabilities were in the norming group, the test's usefulness for them is questionable (Ford, 2004, 2007).

Recognizing that Black students in particular were and are negatively affected by their test performance or scores, the Association of Black Psychologists (Williams, 1970) charged that Black students were/are subsequently denied many educational opportunities; they charged that intelligence tests are not valid measures for Black students and that they are more harmful than helpful. This notion of tests being harmful goes against the principles of fair and equitable testing, a key feature of professional testing standards (e.g., American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, National Council on Measurement in Education, 1999). Simply put, tests should be used to help not harm; they should benefit the test taker.

Jane Mercer 1984 comparing the WISC-R performances of 627 Black, 617 Hispanic, and 669 White students, all native-born and all at Califnronia public schools. Her conclusion was "that the WISC-R discriminates systematically in favor of white students at the item level, the subtest level, and the scale level.... Inferences based on those test scores are racially and culturally discriminatory."

IQ tests are not culturally biased
Investigations

Proponents of intelligence tests maintain that tests are valid and reliable tools for all groups. According to Armour-Thomas and Gopaul-McNicol (1998), support for this position falls into at least three categories or assumptions: (1) tests are culturally fair and items do not favor a particular cultural group; (2) the tasks assess the cognitive abilities underlying intellectual behavior for all groups; and (3) the tests accurately predict performance for all groups.

It is also important to note that test construction is grounded in the assumption of homogeneity and equal opportunity to learn and acquire knowledge and experiences (Armour-Thomas & Gopaul-McNicol, 1998; Flanagan & Ortiz, 2001), meaning that (a) the test items measure the everyday experiences of populations and (b) everyone has had an equal opportunity to learn and be exposed to the tasks in the tests and its format (Ford, 2004). Essentially, it is believed that tests are not discriminatory.

Culture-fair/culture-free tests Since the Stanford-Binet, many other standardized intelligence scales have been developed. One of the most popular modern intelligence tests is the Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) test (Raven, 2003). The test gives individuals a series of boxes, each containing shapes that change from box to box, and a box that is empty. The test taker must recognize the pattern that is shown and correctly identify the shape that should go in the empty box from a collection of options. Unlike the Stanford-Binet, RPM is entirely visual; the test taker does not have to answer written questions, meaning the measured IQ is not dependent on reading comprehension. This allows for better testing that eliminates variables such as native language, age, and possible reading disability.

Question bias

Predictive bias

Misc
http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1977-07996-001

If you control for SES, x's and y's IQ scores are equal
Copypasta: The children of wealthy black parents with advanced degrees score below poor whites on the SAT and the LSAT. Only 61% of blacks pass their state's bar exam on the first try, whereas the passing rate for whites is 91%. Only 58% of blacks pass Step 1 of the US Medical Licensing Exam on the first try, whereas the passing rate for whites is 93%.

2008 SAT scores by race by income

(Racial Amplitudes of Scholastic Aptitude)

These score gaps could be interpreted as white admixture tests. White students have SAT score advantages over all non-Asian minorities. The gaps shrink in order from African Americans to Hispanic Americans to Native Americans to “other” race students. This order seems to correspond to white admixture (African Americans: 22%, Hispanic Americans: 48%, Native American: 50-60%). Granted, those admixture estimates are debatable, and I am reluctant to draw strident conclusions related to the small, fluctuating number of students who call themselves Native-American on the SAT, let alone “others.”

1995 SAT scores for the races in the US, by family income and parental education -- privileged blacks score at same level of EXTREMELY disadvantaged Whites

Extremely rich black students have similar educational scores as extremely poor white students:

Relationship of race &amp;amp;amp; socioeconomic status to undergraduate GPA &amp;amp;amp; LSAT score

http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html

30 Years of Research on Race Differences In Cognitive Ability by Rushton and Jensen, affirming amongst other things the huge IQ gap between blacks and whites and how IQ is correlated with scholastic and real life (socio-economic) performance [PDF, 50 pages]

Black children of parents with graduate degrees have lower SAT scores than white children of parents with a high-school diploma or less.

STANDARDIZED TESTS: THE INTERPRETATION OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC GAPS

Of all group differences, the best studied is between whites and blacks. The black-white gap is also the most reproducible, the black mean lagging behind the white by about one standard deviation. Consequently, we can estimate the black distribution by shifting the white distribution to the left by 1.0 SD, as in Figure 2. When we do this, the area representing the failing fraction increases to 0.75. That is, if whites fail at the rate of 37 percent, a black-white gap of 1.0 SD implies that blacks will fail at the rate of 75 percent, in agreement with their observed failure rate in Waco. Thus, the Waco school district results for blacks and whites were consistent with standardized test results observed universally. (Details of the calculation are given in Appendix A.)

Stereotype threat
Does reducing stereotype threat reduce the gap? https://www.aei.org/publication/the-inequality-taboo/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat#Criticism

Background
From Intelligence: New Findings and Theoretical Developments:

Our understanding of group differences in intellectual ability is furthered by the very large literature on psychological reactions to negative stereotypes. Steele and Aronson (1995) argued that when test takers are aware of widespread stereotypes that impugn a group’s intelligence (e.g., “Black people are stupid,” “Girls can’t do math”), they frequently experience the threat of devaluation—by the self, by others, or by both. The resulting arousal and anxiety can impair executive functioning on complex tasks such as standardized aptitude tests. Steele and Aronson called this response stereotype threat and demonstrated in a series of experiments that Black test takers scored considerably better—sometimes far better—on intellectual tests when the test was presented in a manner that downplayed ability evaluation or downplayed the relevance of race. Since the publication of Steele and Aronson’s 1995 article, some 200 replications of the effect have been published, extending the findings to women and mathematics abilities, Latinos and verbal abilities, elderly individuals and short-term memory abilities, low-income students and verbal abilities, and a number of nonacademic domains as well. See Steele, Spencer, and Aronson (2002) and Aronson and McGlone (2009) for reviews of the literature. Two recent meta-analyses reported by Walton and Spencer (2009) that included the data from nearly 19,000 students indicate that stereotype threat can cause tests to underestimate the true abilities of students likely to experience stereotype threat (Walton & Spencer, 2009). Walton and Spencer’s analysis suggests a conservative estimate that women’s math performance and Black students’ verbal performance are suppressed by about 0.2 SD.

In a number of the individual studies, however, the suppression was closer to a full standard deviation. The stereotype threat formulation has led to a variety of simple educational interventions conducted in schools and colleges that have substantially raised the achievement of Black students (e.g., Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; G. L. Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, & Master, 2006) and the achievement of girls in mathematics (Blackwell, Trzesniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Good, Aronson, & Inzlicht, 2003). The studies suggest that stereotype threat suppresses real world intellectual achievements. Some of the interventions seem remarkably minor on the surface yet produce substantial gains in academic achievement. For example, simple efforts at persuading minority students that their intelligence is under their control to a substantial extent have nontrivial effects on academic performance (Aronson et al., 2002; Blackwell et al., 2007).

A critique of the Steele–Aronson research by Sackett, Hardison, and Cullen (2004) suggests caution in attributing Black–White test score gaps to stereotype threat. In short, the design and analysis of the studies leave the findings open to an alternative interpretation, namely, that inducing stereotype threat in the laboratory simply widens the existing Black–White gap but that reducing stereotype threat leaves this preexisting gap intact. This is indeed a possibility. However, if stereotype threat had no influence on test scores, it would be hard to explain why the interventions specifically targeted to reduce stereotype threat and its effects would have such strong effects on reducing real world test and achievement gaps. Thus, the weight of the evidence suggests that stereotype threat probably accounts for some of the Black–White difference on intelligence related tests under some circumstances. At the least, these effects should give one considerable pause when interpreting group differences in intelligence test scores and academic achievement potential.

Steele, Claude M.; Aronson, Joshua (1995). "Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans"

Aronson, J., Fried, C. B., & Good, C. (2002). Reducing stereotype threat and boosting academic achievement of African-American students: The role of conceptions of intelligence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 113–125. doi:10.1006/jesp.2001.1491

Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. (2006, September 1). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307–1310. doi:10.1126/science.1128317 http://msan.wceruw.org/documents/resources_for_educators/Race/Cohen%20et%20al%202006.pdf

Sackett, Paul R.; Hardison, Chaitra M.; Cullen, Michael J. (January 2004). "On interpreting stereotype threat as accounting for African American-White differences on cognitive tests" http://www.psych.uw.edu.pl/jasia/sackett.pdf