Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2009
California’s high school exit exam is keeping disproportionate numbers of girls and non-whites from graduating, even when they are just as capable as white boys, according to a study released Tuesday. It also found that the exam, which became a graduation requirement in 2007, has “had no positive effect on student achievement.”
The study by researchers at Stanford University and UC Davis concluded that girls and non-whites were probably failing the exit exam more often than expected because of what is known as “stereotype threat,” a theory in social psychology that holds, essentially, that negative stereotypes can be self-fulfilling. In this case, researcher Sean Reardon said, girls and students of color may be tripped up by the expectation that they cannot do as well as white boys.
Reardon said there was no other apparent reason why girls and non-whites fail the exam more often than white boys, who are their equals in other, lower-stress academic assessments. Reardon, an associate professor of education at Stanford, urged the state Department of Education to consider either scrapping the exit exam — one of the reforms for which state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell has fought the hardest — or looking at ways of intervening to help students perform optimally. Reardon said the exam is keeping as many as 22,500 students a year from graduating who would otherwise fulfill all their requirements.
FOR THE RECORD: [The] in Wednesday’s Section A about California’s high school exit exam misstated the findings of a university study about the test. The story said researchers found that girls and non-whites fail the exam more than white boys, who are their equals in other assessments. The study actually found that girls and non-whites fail the exam more than those white boys who are their equals in other assessments. It did not compare them to all white boys.
{snip}
Reardon said he initially was skeptical of the “stereotype threat” effect, but that it has been well-established by social psychologists and appears to apply to the test disparities.
Original article
(Posted on April 22, 2009)
Comments
“FOR THE RECORD: [The] in Wednesday’s Section A about California’s high school exit exam misstated the findings of a university study about the test. The story said researchers found that girls and non-whites fail the exam more than white boys, who are their equals in other assessments. The study actually found that girls and non-whites fail the exam more than those white boys who are their equals in other assessments. It did not compare them to all white boys.”
Either that or the “other assessments” are biased against white boys.
Repeat, class: Everybody is equal, but some people are more equal than others.
“The study by researchers at Stanford University and UC Davis concluded that girls and non-whites were probably failing the exit exam more often than expected because of what is known as “stereotype threat,” a theory in social psychology that holds, essentially, that negative stereotypes can be self-fulfilling.”
While I do agree with the reality of the “stereotype threat” I disagree that it is can be applied on a gender or racial basis but on an individual one. Besides, how do they propose to fix this, by insisting on intentionally holding back even more White males because they still turn out to be the best and brightest regardless of 40 years of AA and education aimed at creating White males with that very complex?
What next, lobotomies for the sake of social justice???
It never ceases to amaze me at the contortions that liberals will go through to place the blame of African-American failure on anything and everything except African-Americans themselves. Almost always, the “explanations” and excuses for Black pathologies lead back to Whites as being the root cause. In other words, no matter by what metric one measures Black failure, be it education, crime, divorce, prison, anti-social behavior, drugs, sexual diseases, unmarried mothers — liberals will somehow explain it away as the fault of Whites.
Liberals believe that Blacks are like little children — just a mean look or a nasty comment from a single White person and WHAM! That black is helpless to study, obey the law, hold a job, constrain impulsive behavior, etc., for the rest of their life.
Just when you thought you have heard all the excuses they come up with more quack science propaganda like this. Perhaps they can now explain how all the girls who passed the test were able to do so with this “stereotype threat” casting its powerful spell over them.
“stereotype threat,” a theory in social psychology that holds, essentially, that negative stereotypes can be self-fulfilling.”
Ah yes, stereotype threat. Years ago, I was involved in an short online discussion with Mr. Claude Steele over this theory.
Did you know Mr. Steele cites his own work as peer review?
When you have nothing, you grasp at straws.
Stereotype Threat: http://tinyurl.com/azkt38
Same old, same old, If the white boys lose on merit they lose. If the white boys win on merit we change the rules so they still lose.
The study actually found that girls and non-whites fail the exam more than those white boys who are their equals in other assessments.
Ummm… maybe white boys also feel stress and simply perform better under stress?
And might a better ability to deal with stressful situations have something to with success in life? Say in finance or firefighting?
“how do they propose to fix this, by insisting on intentionally holding back even more White males because they still turn out to be the best and brightest regardless of 40 years of AA and education aimed at creating White males with that very complex?”
True genius. So, basically you’re saying the entire grievance industry aka ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, radio, newspapers and educators… the entire grievance industry is ‘unintentionally’ creating these stereotypes in first place - the more they say they are fighting against them. Anything to have to keep from acknowledging white folks might be people too.
I do wonder, though, if that same conditioning - aside from dehumanizing white men in they eyes of everyone else and each other… I do wonder if all the conditioning is causing white men to think everything is A-Ok for them and they have nothing to worry about, and so they coast on easy and don’t try so hard. They are certainly picky, of all people, as to who they pick as a girlfriend.
Then I remember wondering about white men is Nazi-like and hate speech (sarcasm).
Everyone seems to be dumbing down, or at least losing all sense of manners. We are a nation of ‘intelligent’ scalawags. I am not a prude, by the way.
I think it is misleading to compare all females with white males. If white females only were compared against white males there would be near parity. I’m sure you could make the statement that all males under-perform white females only.
Walk proud, fellow White males! There’s a reason for why we supposedly run the world: We’re smarter and more qualified than anyone else!
Seriously, this “stereotype threat” has to be the most ridiculous excuse for black academic failure to be trotted out to date. As to the claim that girls are disproportionately kept from graduating by the exit exam, this hardly squares with the fact that girls make up a disproportionate share of the upper academic 10 percent of most high school classes.
And including “Asians” among those supposedly “victimized” by the test is a real hoot. Has anyone heard about the fact that the University of California system discriminates in favor of admission of more black freshman applicants by placing a ceiling on the number of Asians accepted? Half the classes on many of the UC campuses would consist of Asian-Americans if this were not done — which definitely doesn’t make it RIGHT.
If one accepts this “stereotype threat” myth, perhaps the NBA should set aside some starting positions for White players only; after all, they might feel threatened by the “stereotype” of the superior black athlete otherwise!
“California’s high school exit exam is keeping disproportionate numbers of girls and non-whites from graduating, even when they are just as capable as white boys, according to a study released Tuesday.”
This sentence leaves my head spinning. The exit exam is designed to test capability. So how can the statement be made that the girls and non-whites are just as capable? Besides, why is everyone now being compared to white males who are now down to 15% of the student body in CA?
“Stereotype threat” is one of these sociological findings that belongs in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, worthy of an Ignoble Prize. If anything “stereotype threat” should make students either try harder (minority test taker doesn’t want to look dumb) or less hard (white male slacks because he thinks he’s a genius compared to the Chicano hemming and hawing at the desk next to him in the exam hall).
Last time I checked, trying harder makes you perform better, except maybe in bed.
these exit exams are now common everywhere. blacks don’t read well except for a few. You can’t understand the text in the exam, how are you going to do even multiple choice questions based on the text.The exams are similar, though not as hard as, the SAT.
Blacks have SAT scores at least 100 points below whites of the same age and number of years in high school. Additionally most blacks can barely get thru geometry, and many never do. So math exit tests are a big problem for them to. You can put the best teachers in the urban schools, as Obama’s flunky education chief, Arnie Duncan of Chicago, proposes. All you’ll get at most are a few more lighter skinned blacks or brighter blacks who are bored because they are in chaotic classes taught by Africans, Filipinos and others fourth rate teachers in urban and near suburban schools.
Exit exams are great: they offer a “level playing field” to prevent utterly unqualified students from getting hs diplomas and then going on to open admission public colleges.
Eventually the morons will sue; take the suit, don’t settle, and take it to the Supreme Court. Do it 50 times over if you have to for each state. Expect Obama to back the black flunkees(tho he went to private schools with whites). Finally, if these geniuses dont like exit exams, let the govt reimburse parents who send kids to accredited private schools.
That way white kids, Asians and the few bright black kids can get out of the public high schools and leave the illegal immigrants and the rest of the blacks.
“Reardon said he initially was skeptical of the “stereotype threat” effect, but that it has been well-established by social psychologists and appears to apply to the test disparities.”
So, if we make the adjustments we want to make and the disparity still exists, we’ll think up another reason just as foolish as this one in order to excuse the poor performance by our chosen people.
However, one thing is for certain: We’re going to take those white boys down a notch or two.
I notice that Jack O’Connell is mentioned. Even if DiFi runs, I think O’C. is going to win the Democrat nomination for Governor, and by implication, win Governor. (Republican Party? What Republican Party?)
The media are starting to make issue of DiFi’s corruption, when anyone with a brain, a shred of intellectual honesty and an internet connection has know it for years. Why are they making an issue now? Answer: I think the California MSM have thrown in for Gavin Newsom (who is running for Gov.), because they’re rewarding him for his “courage” on the gay marriage issue. And I think they might think that women would tend to Meg Whitman (former ebay CEO, probable Republican nominee) over DiFi because DiFi comes across as a b-word. So they’re trying to sully (i.e. finally tell the truth about) DiFi, who they think (and probably is) the odds on favorite. DiFi-Newsom fighting (they’re both are/were mayors of SF) would open the door for O’Connell.
Reardon said there was no other apparent reason why girls and non-whites fail the exam more often than white boys
Why would one draw the conclusion from the data that girls and non-whites “fail more” than white males? If white males are the exception and the minority (Joe B says 15 percent), wouldn’t it be more truthful to say white males SUCCEED MORE than the great majority of test-takers?
This story also displays the “Asian omission” that commenters here often pick up on in these types of stories — Asian scores are simply not mentioned, or are blended in with Hispanic and black scores.
And finally, anonymous makes the good point that apparently all girls, white and not, were lumped together, which makes the comparison here potentially meaningless.
The logical flaws are getting so obvious in these stories that it’s almost embarassing. The human mind can truly rationalize anything if so demanded by liberal doctrine.
Even more interesting is this question. How do they know that the “minorities and girls are equally capable? Are they basing it on I.Q. tests? Grades? What?
If it’s I.Q. tests, then there is some unknown factor here, will to suceed, etc.
If it’s grades, then you have proof that Affirmative Action through grades inflation covers up racial differences in intelligence.
And as always, the Asian kids are immune to the maladies plaguing NAMS. I wonder if it is cultural…and if so, what genes led to this cultural development.
“California’s high school exit exam is keeping disproportionate numbers of girls and non-whites from graduating, even when they are just as capable as white boys”
I am very suspicious of how this is worded. Evidently, White girls are lumped in with nonWhite girls. If this is the case, it is no wonder that girls in general score lower than White male students. Whites are a minority in California, and even if White girls have much higher IQs, it will still not overcome the average if they are lumped in with nonWhites.
You get three chances of passing this test, needless to say when i i took it most of the black and hispanic kids didnt pass it the first time nor the second or third. I also dont understand how “girls” dont pass at the rate of white boys, they are usually very focused on such things and are not as gullible to stereotypes like boys
“We’re going to take those white boys down a notch or two.”
How low can they go? How low are they already? We’ll never know because no one will ever ask. And no one will ever call for an increase in the number of whites hired by the city of Oakland. Or for an increase the number of white bus drivers in the city where I live. There are none.
Why isn’t this important study, California public schools, and the LA Times, concerned about how everyone compares to Asian students? Why start in the middle?
Without looking at the data, I doubt white girls are appropriately grouped with blacks and hispanics concerning performance on the test. This is a time-old divide and conquer technique; trying to isolate white men to the greatest extent possible.
Once again we see the left using the divide and conquer strategy against Whites. They use this tactic with affirmative action policies by including White females along with minorities as victims of those evil White males. By doing so, it plants the idea into the minds of young White females that they and minorities are in the same boat and that White males are an alien being deserving of mistrust. The White male becomes the enemy while minorities become their ally in the racial spoils game.
Now, with this study, they again use this strategy by subconsciously planting the seed into the minds of young White females that they have more in common with minorities than with White males by implying that White males are gaining some kind of unfair educational advantage at the expense of White females. In other words, the enemy is at it again and must be stopped.
Divide and conquer.
Divide and conquer.
“If one accepts this “stereotype threat” myth, perhaps the NBA should set aside some starting positions for White players only; after all, they might feel threatened by the “stereotype” of the superior black athlete otherwise!”
Well said!
The test for making it into the NBA, i.e. how well you play the game, has a disparate impact on white men. As such, it should not be used in order to qualify for NBA participation.
Hey, Supremem Court! How far do you think I’d get with this argument?
- Real
“Reardon said there was no other apparent reason why girls and non-whites fail the exam more often than white boys, who are their equals in other, lower-stress academic assessments. “
Reardon’s stated the reason right there in this sentence:
“their equals in other, lower-stress academic assessments. “
If you only perform well when it’s easy and not stressful and then drop your standard when under stress so much so that you fail, what use are you? That would make you a liability!
What these exit exams are picking up is that teachers give girls and blacks better grades than they earn, hurting the “evil patriarchal white male power structure” as best they can.
Some teachers are really threatened by students who intellectually challenge them, and this starts to happen in high school. Little Johnny understands the information he is given and starts engaging it critically or expanding on it, maybe even outclassing the teacher in her own subject matter and teacher punishes Johnny with a C.
Little Linda repeats back everything the teacher says word for word and never threatens teacher, Linda get an A. Little Leroy shows up late everyday, doesn’t understand what he is told, can’t even parrot back the information like Linda, and teacher gives Leroy a B for signing his name at the top of the exam.
They all take the exit exam, and lo and behold. Johnny gets the best score, then Linda, then Leroy. It’s not stereotype threat. It’s the teacher’s subtle war on white males, especially white males who have that dreaded superior analytical ability that threatens gender equalitarians so much.
It’s official: tests are now only for white males. They rest of you will be promoted according to government dictat.
Wonder how much money (grants) Stanford and UC Davis received for concocting that finding? Does anyone really believe that study? I mean if minorities and White females are equally capable, why would they not do as well on tests. If these claims are true, that pattern of failure would be reflected throughout the entire school life, kindergarden through college, for minorities and females. Given that, why make make this claim, blaming it on the exit exam?
Is it me, or am I the only reader smelling something fishy about this ‘study.’
So if white males aren’t good at sports as black males are, then it’s acceptable to say black men are genetically better at sports. But white men can’t assert they are better at things that require thinking, long-term planning, and organizational running than are blacks. No, that would be ‘racist’.
“it’s acceptable to say black men are genetically better at sports. But white men can’t assert they are better at things that require thinking… No, that would be ‘racist’.”
That’s because of the money involved in both. Being that we live in a society where a ‘Marxist’ outlook on life is seen as normal/enlightenment. Wait - folks who are better athletes make more money, too. That can’t be it.
The girls (if they are white) do not do as well because they don’t want to appear smarter than the white males. White males seem to have a problem with smart girls of any race. At least that is what television has taught boys.It has also taught both sexes that girls are here for only one purpose and that is not being smart in the textbook sense. Secondly, standardized tests are useless except to the extent for which they make the creators and publishers of said exam, money. They prove nothing and tend to increase dropout rates more than anything else. On any given day, any normally intelligent kid can knock the top out or display stupidity no one would have thought possible.
We hear every year how unfair testing is to minorities, so every so often the tests are dumbed down and yet “they” complain how the tests are still unfair, not taking into account the “differences” in the races.
My teenager has managed to pass every section of the exam before the end of the tenth grade.
Are they basing it on I.Q. tests? Grades?
Gunrunner — I looked up the study and it’s actually neither: they used the 8th, 9th and 10th grade English Language Assessment and Math CST tests from the students and grouped them by quartile.
One problem I see with this is that it assumes that “stereotype threat” only operates on the exit exam, not on any other standardized test. They get around this by saying that stereotype threat is “activated more” by the exit test than by low-stakes assessment tests.
The paper is forced to claim that women have stereotype threat just on the math part of the exam, and Asian students, only on the English portion of the exam. It does not make clear whether these students also had differential scores on the math and english assessment tests. If so, it could just mean that non-white students are more susceptible to stress.
Finally, it occurs to me that even within a quartile, there might be big enough differences in distribution to produce a difference of 21% to 37% pass rate. Figure: we know that white students do better overall, so there are probably fewer white students in the 4th quartile (as a % of all white students) than black or Hispanic students. In fact, there might be very few white students in the overall bottom quartile, virtually all of them right at the edge. The study does not invetigate these questions so we cannot know.
University departments of Educations at all universities have been for most of the last century and up to now the greatest detriment to pre-college Education. They continually justify their less than worthless jobs by self-serving fabrications while calling for more nonsense that brings in more funding. They are just disgusting.
Here is contrary research:
“Abstract However, we found no direct support for stereotype threat and, in fact, found some effects for proctor ethnicity that ran counter to a stereotype-threat explanation.”
http://www.etsliteracy.com/Media/Research/pdf/RR-04-37.pdf
White boys?
Can you imagine calling African-American high school seniors black boys?
“it’s acceptable to say black men are genetically better at sports. But white men can’t assert they are better at things that require thinking… No, that would be ‘racist’.”
“That’s because of the money involved in both. Being that we live in a society where a ‘Marxist’ outlook on life is seen as normal/enlightenment. Wait - folks who are better athletes make more money, too. That can’t be it.”
Once again, I must point out the huge number of non-professional sports that Blacks are not genetically set up to excell. Swimming and gymnastics come to mind, as does winter sports in general. Some have even called for the end to the Winter Olympics because Blacks just can’t break in. But there are plenty of other sports as well. Didn’t we have a discussion here on a post about a Kenyan man who wanted to be the best bicyclist in the world? Where is he now?
“Reardon said there was no other apparent reason why girls and non-whites fail the exam more often than white boys ..”
Then why do Asian males and females have higher passing rates than whites?
Scapegoating whitey = civil rights
Bringing up the truth about race and IQ = racism.
“Stereotype threat?”
Unfortunately, the world is overpopulated with ostensible adults who are actually willing to believe this twaddle.
With all the taxpayer-funded resources being thrown at female and non-white students: self-esteem building, magnet schools, etc., this “stereotype threat” utterly fails a quick reality check.
“…equals in other assessments.”
I’ve read articles mentioning that sometimes asian girls do best of any group on some test or other.
Then the media is jumping for joy that asian girls beat out even white boys. It just shows the superiority of non whites over whites and girls and women over men and boys. Hallaluiah hallaluiah!!! Joy to the world!!!!!!
But when white males score hightest it is the result of discrimination and probably the intervention of Satan himself on behalf of the white males.
If the point is to ‘level the playing field’ through Head Start, Teachers aides, Busing; neighborhood community centers that have remedial workshops, child care, and pride indoctrination, ‘minority’ scholarships, a ‘sensitive’ curriculum K-16, and sensitivity on ever TV station (at least sensitive to non-whites) and publication, and college recruiters, and ‘minority’ special interest groups active on campus… if the point is to level the playing field through non-invasive means such as education (if indeed that is the point), then why affirmative action on most every job site?
“…You get three chances of passing this test…”
Posted by Jonas
Not true. Students have eight changes to pass the test through the 12th grade. After that, they are entitled to two more years of school-funded ‘intensive study’ and several more tries to pass the exit exam. The official government CaHSEE site does not mention the number of times a ‘student’ can take the test.
From the article:
“…Reardon said there was no other apparent reason why girls and non-whites fail the exam more often than white boys, who are their equals in other, lower-stress academic assessments…”
What other assessments might those be?—notice he offers no examples of academic assessments where NAMs are equal to Whites (males OR females).
As Ian Jobling writes in AmRen:
“…Everywhere, always Whites and Asians outscore blacks and hispanics…”
I have a feeling the ‘researchers’ well understand IQ differences between the races—and probably discuss this in private— but to mention IQ out loud would be instant career suicide. So every few years they’re asked to twist reality in order to provide yet another ridiculous reason as to why there is a large, intractable testing gap between NAMs and Whites.
I gave the CaHSEE a few weeks ago, got a good look at it, and was struck by how much more it has been dumbed down—to the point of being truly laughable. The English, writing and math sections require only very basic, rudimentary-level skills—and a passing score requires only a little over half of the answers be correct.
I’ve also heard many anecdotal accounts of widespread cheating in the schools—no one wants the watchful eye of the government upon his school demanding answers as to why students there are not passing the exit exam. Teachers and administrators know that they will be blamed for high rates of failure, never the students—or more realistically, the students’ low IQs.
Only a few more years and I’ll be out of the rat maze.
Bon out of Taxifornia
My H.S. football coaches often told the team, that our opponents thought that we played like frightened little girls (AmRen will not print what they actually said). According to the “stereotype threat” theory, this should have caused the team members, especially the sensitive Blacks, to play ineffectively in order to validate our opponents’ low opinion of us. In my experience, this did not happen. If anything, we played harder, to show them who weren’t the “frightened little girls”.
In fact, what I have observed in all areas of endeavour, is that guys will expend extra effort to do something, just to prove to doubters that he can do it. The “stereotype threat” theory may apply to females, but I don’t think it applies to guys.
In fact, what I have observed in all areas of endeavour, is that guys will expend extra effort to do something, just to prove to doubters that he can do it.
I completely agree with that — it’s similar to the experiment conditions where they told the black kids, immediately before taking the test, that it would “measure intelligence.” It ought to fire you up.
Except there is no such “stereotype threat/motivator” event before the exit exam. Philippe Rushton isn’t standing by the door to the exam room telling the black students going in that it’s an IQ test. Many may be attending high schools where there are few or no white students at all. So where’s the “threat” coming from? For a black student with black parents, black classmates, black teachers, and living in a black neighborhood?
You got to feel sorry for these girls. People
Stereotype threat used to be called “test anxiety”. I wonder how many of millions of Ford Foundation and taxpayer’s dollars were grabbed up by useless liberal think tanks to come up with the new term?
How about the old fashioned “stupid?”
Test anxiety is a real phenomenon. Different people respond differently to stress. As an extreme case, I had an Oriental kid in my class who tested in the bottom third, but gave signs of being much smarter. A closer look showed the kid to belong in about the 80th percentile. But there is no reason to claim that anxiety is not evenly distributed among the races. This kid was stressed because of personal problems, one of which was a parental demand for top grades. Are Black and Hispanic parents burdening their kids with unbearable demands for high GPAs? Not likely, nor do I believe that most Black or Hispanic kids are aware of what Whites objectively think of them. They are flattered and pampered in all the media, and rarely if ever meet Whites who tell them the truth. They have no particular reason to be stressed as they are blissful in their ignorance.
“Different people respond differently to stress.”
—Anonymous
Absolutely right! There is a short phrase that neatly sums it up: “differing levels of self-discipline,” yet we are expected to believe that a high-schooler who fails exams because of “stress” should of course be emotionally mature enough to raise an infant only a few years later.
Think a high-school test is stressful? Try raising a kid. Hint: don’t expect any sleep for a year.
