John Hechinger, Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2009
High-school students’ performance last year on the SAT college-entrance exam fell slightly, and the score gap generally widened between lower-performing minority groups and white and Asian-American students, raising questions about the effectiveness of national education reform efforts.
Average scores for the class of 2009 in critical reading dropped to 501 from 502, in writing to 493 from 494 and held steady in math, at 515. The combined scores are the lowest this decade and reflect stalled performance over the past three years. The reading scores are the worst since 1994.
Many observers Tuesday viewed the flat results of recent years as discouraging in light of a more than 25-year effort to improve U.S. education. “This is a nearly unrelenting tale of woe and disappointment,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. “If there’s any good news here, I can’t find it.”
{snip}
In the class of 2009, African-American students received an average critical reading score of 429, or 72 points below the general population. Math scores had a similar gap. Hispanic students’ scores also lagged but not by as much.
Asian-American students showed the most dramatic gains. In math they scored an average of 587-72 points better than the general population. Since 2008, their average math score has climbed six points.
{snip}
Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, the New York-based nonprofit that oversees the SAT, stressed what he considered the good news in Tuesday’s data: the growing and diverse number of students taking the exam.
A record 1.53 million students took the exam in 2009. About 40% were minority students, up from 29% in 1999. Education analysts said scores would be expected to drop as more students take the test, so College Board officials interpreted the stability in scores as encouraging.
Noting the gap in achievement between lower-performing minority students and the general population, College Board officials said those who lagged tended to go to school in poorer districts with fewer resources. {snip}
College Board officials said that Asian-American students appeared to do better at all income levels. Officials said that was because they tend to take more Advanced Placement and other rigorous courses, and their families place a strong value on success in education.
{snip}
Original article
Email
John Hechinger
at john.hechinger@wsj.com .
(Posted on August 26, 2009)
Comments
No surprise here. Racial rankings in SAT scores mimic almost exactly racial IQ scores and racial career success. In general, people with low IQ tend to score low on SAT tests, tend to drop out of high school, and tend to to have low career success. As our nation imports millions of Hispanics and refugees from Africa, we can expect a “dumbing-down” of America, and a loss of productivity and competitive edge. We will slowly slide into a 2nd World status. America will become a second-rate multicultural paradise.
ANOTHER RACIST TEST! How is everyone safe when even inanimate objects hate…tonight at 8 only on CNN!
The SAT is often “recentered,” i.e. the scores are dumbed down. This will explain some of the increase. Since the fall of 1994, it has been possible to get a perfect 800 on a section and not get every question right. This explains why there are more “perfect 1600s” in the last number of years.
The more blacks and Hispanics take the SAT, the more likely it will be that it is diluted for the purposes of racial pandering. As of a few years ago, the SAT now includes a third section for an essay question. If you write about your life’s struggles in battling white racism, you get a perfect 800.
It always bothers me when education reporting focuses on the gaps between minority and other students. If you want to track minority progress, compare the most recent minority scores to those of years past.
My concern about focusing on gaps as the problem is that there are two ways to close a gap. One is to raise the bottom and do your best to keep the top from progressing any further. And the other is simply making an effort to regress the top so they don’t test as well the next year.
Both of the above methods would close the “gap.” But I would hardly call that progress.
I’d like the see the whites crack the books a bit more to keep up with the Asians on mathematics and writing (it’s the English language for Chrissake, there’s no excuse to be worse than Asians in writing). Done right, mathematics is far more interesting than the MTV they use to dumb us down with. As for the Hispanics and blacks, I don’t suppose we will ever get our politicians to stop wasting our money trying to squeeze blood out of a stone. (There probably are ways to improve their scores somewhat, but only by dismantling the entire liberal structure of welfarism. Hell will freeze over first.) I note that Congress is most eager to import more of the people in the two bottom categories.
The performance of Asian students is very heartening. As a teacher, I can attest that one rarely finds a bad Asian student or person. They are a good lot and they are wise to avoid the pitfalls befalling the rest of America. I anticipate the Asian math advantage will gain over time as lower class whites become the majority among the white race. I see white deterioration every day. It’s sad because many of the white kids could do very well. None of them, and few parents, have any conception of the talent in the greater world. They only hear “white advantage” on the news and believe that success is their destiny. They will be sorely mistaken.
One of the biggest frauds in recent years was the claim that blacks and hispanics were “closing the gap” w/white and Asian students.
One reason the gap appeared to be closing was that Bush’s No Child Left Behind law has led to massive nationwide test fraud in our high schools. However, once those high school kids take an unbiased SAT or IQ test the genetic truth is revealed.
So the Asian-American students have been excelling at the tests because they take more rigorous, college prep courses, and because their parents encourage them more? OK; so why didn’t the story hazard a guess as to why the African-American students’ scores were in the toilet, right across the board?
How about, they take the easier courses, and their parents — make that their mommas, since their daddies are often unknown — don’t give a hoot? A little exploration of the issue of IQ by racial groups would have been interesting, too. But, oh, we couldn’t do that! That would be RACIST!
Did anyone notice that the “Hispanic” results do not include Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. I have a strange feeling those two groups would have dragged the Latino score lower by cancelling out (even more) high scoring “Hispanic” groups like people of real Spanish heritage and white Cubans.
Standardized tests are being purged from university admissions for the express purpose of making everyone equally eligible for a college education.
When faced with the facts, make the facts irrelevant.
I’m amazed that AR snipped the following:
“You can’t look at these results and say that NCLB has been an enormous success,” says Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington. “The bottom line is the country is changing dramatically. Unless minority kids are educated better, we are going to be in trouble because pretty soon they are going to be the majority.”
When blacks and/or Hispanics become the majority, civilization comes to an end. If Asians become the majority, freedom comes to an end. From liberals and neocons, save us, O Lord!
I love these articles when the come out. All the hand wringing by liberals and idealistic conservatives alike. We need another program or our resources have not been utilized properly to close this gap. And god forbid that any writer, analyst or commentator approaches the truth that it’s simply not possible to narrow a gap when one’s genetic heritage is not suited for a traditional western style university education.
In other news, the sun will rise tomorrow.
Do these liberals really believe their own views, or are they really this stupid? I have always thought they were just spewing their liberal propaganda to cover all facts reguarding race,but sometimes I wonder if they are really just insane!
But wait! The New York Times said that the “Obama Effect” was lifting blacks out of their generational low intelligence, which we all know was nothing but the result of low self-esteem, which in turn was the result of blacks being help back by white racism.
This just can’t be! The New York Times said that the coming of Obama was going to mean the end of low black IQ. How dare you question the wisdom of the New York Times!
Maybe it’s just me, but this article seems to be one big contradiction. For example, they say that the score gap widened between minority groups and whites, then turn around and say the good news is that more “diverse” students are taking the exam.
Then they say that African Americans don’t do as well because they go to school in poorer districts, but that Asian-Americans do well at ALL income levels. Just ANOTHER excuse as to why blacks are not as smart as whites and Asians.
Can you believe that this Gaston Caperton used to be the Governor of the 96% white state of West Virginia?That just shows that the whole system of elite selection and training in this country is fatally flawed.They don’t represent anyone or anything but the institutions that feed off the rest of us.
Science has proven that IQ is largely genetic, thus the quote:
“Their ain’t no pills for stupidity” (lol)
is quite apt.
The only way to eliminate the gap is with interbreeding, thus the focus has shifted to immigration and racial mixing. This is why their is such a concentrated effort in the media to indoctrinate.
I find it quite amusing that hispanics are scoring higher than blacks in reading and writing despite often coming here speaking spanish as their first language. This more than anything attests to the intelligence factor being at least 50-80% genetic. Besides, if asians didn’t have a higher IQ then whites then it would be impossible for them to score higher than us on a test that is supposedly ‘full of cultural bias.’
Speaking as a White man, I congratulate the Asians for a job well done. Excellence deserves admiration.
We as Whites, need to hit the books more. Blaming others ain’t gonna do any good.
“Done right, mathematics is far more interesting than the MTV they use to dumb us down with”
My grandchildren are all home-schooled. WE control the curriculum and the focus. No time or resources are wasted on multi-cultural diversity nonsense.
In my oldest daughter’s home, she does not allow the three boys to watch ANY of the cultural diarrhea coming out of LA or NY. That not only provides time for mathematics, but lots of healthy physical exercise away from the TV and video games. None of my grandsons are bloated, obese couch potatoes either.
If you want your WASP children to eventually score well on SATs or any other standardized testing, pull them out of the government re-education camps and do it yourself.
Ask yourself this….how important ARE your children and grandchildren?
So who would you rather be a top Asian grad student at MIT or some white college dropout like Bill Gates? Let’s face it most of the top CEOs, Nobel Prize winners, inventors, entrepreneur are non-Asians.
Basically speaking, Whites create the jobs, hires the Asians and support the Blacks.
Wasn’t it just a few years ago that they “dumbed down” the SAT test in order to make students look better?
In order to play football at an NCAA school you must score a combined 750. This means your score can be a full quater lower than the average brain dead kid. One third of all black football players can`t make the grade.They give you 100 points for signing your name.
It should be considered that black students at the bottom today will have offspring tomorrow who will also score at the bottom in the SAT tests. With little or no history of academic success in the black community there is little incentive or motivation to try harder to do well. So being at the bottom is self-imposed. It’s a good thing the army has low standards when it come to intelligence so most could go to the military and perform menial labor.
WHAT!?! Blacks are performing poorly in intelligence tests that are strictly colorblind? How can this be? I thought we’re all equal?…..
“Black Muslim kids, educated in Muslim schools, score a dead heat with whites from the best non black majority city schools. Muslims are married,teach manners and respect for authority, rejoice in their children, and demand high performance. Blacks need to follow the example of these people and not Vick, Plaxico,O.J., Kobe, and Mayor Berry. They won`t because we have re-inslaved them with hand outs and panderings
Black Muslim kids are also taught the fantastic stories about White people having been invented by a mad Black scientist named Yacoub in an experiment gone wrong. They’re taught to hate Whites and especially Jews and they read the written wisdom of the late (Deo Gratias) Khalid Muhammad, and the insane rantings of Farrakhan. LEt’s not even get into the way the regard their women and young girls.
Every Black Muslim speaker that I have heard sounded like a brain dead zombie spouting the party line.
RE # 26, My Dear Anonymous. You are right on, they aren`t the best petroleum engineers and wild catters. They did pass on the Indian invention, the zero. They invented algebra, created break throughs in medicine that we over looked for 800 years. They copied the classics and translated them into Arabic, saving the entire classical world for mankind.The invented the Lateen sail that permitted world exploration and were the lynch pin of the silk road where gun powder, paper, and printing made it here. Them Muslims are some dumb sons of the Prophet.
“I see white deterioration every day. It’s sad because many of the white kids could do very well.”
I work at a major university that is considered to be among the top 20 universitities in the country. I work in the math, engineering, information technology and science section of the campus. I’m only a clerk, but I have seen a lot in my 27 years.
The truth is, no matter how well a White engineering, computer programming or science graduate does, he or she absolutely will not get hired. Repeat, the employers, both private and government will not hire White science and math graduates.
It is therefore, totally useless for Whites to spend years and tens of thousands of dollars getting degrees in math, science, computers or engineering because there are no jobs for them when they graduate.
There are several of those huge chain bookstores in the area. I like to read and spend time browsing and in the little cafes. I have noticed that many of the minimum wage White male clerks are math, science and computer graduates of my university.
So why did they study hard and go to college? For a minimum wage job? Why bother?
There are only 3 jobs for White male computer math etc graduates. One is testing and refining new computer games. Those are part time, from about April to September. The games have to be perfected in time for the Christmas season.
Next is teaching high school math wherever there is an opening, generally some horrible, dangerous inner city ghetto school where the minority female administrators will make every effort to fire the White male teacher before he achieves tenure.
The last is the military. The engineering degree will get them in the nuclear submarine program or officer’s training. But of course they will passed over for promotion because the military, like every other employer only promotes women and minorities.
My university has a huge medical research program. Virtually every physician and PHD employed in that program is a citizen of the people’s republic of China over here on research visas. The university obtains these visas for the Chinese because it swears that it cannot find one, not one American citizen who can do the research.
So teachers, it is not so much that White boys are slackers, it is that after years of hard study and tens of thousands of dollars there is no math, technical or science employment for them due to our government’s anti White racism and policy of gradual genocide.
The racial academic gap is much worse than the published SAT score averages suggest - which is very bad enough. Have you noticed that the College Board doesn’t have a FAQ on why the scoring should start at 200 (the “sign you name” dismissal is a dishonest slip around this real question). This makes the gap appear less severe, especially with respect to ratio. Also, there’s recentering:
“Contrary to popular belief, 800 is not a “perfect score.” It simply means that some threshold has been reached. Two students, each with scores of 800, will not necessarily have done equally well. A few years ago the College Board changed its scoring system. They called it “recentering.” Ostensibly, recentering was designed to bring both the verbal and mathematical averages closer to 500. There were, however, other only rarely mentioned consequences. Recentering compresses the distribution of scores near the top, so that the best students become difficult to distinguish from one another. The new scoring system blurs the line between excellent and exceptional. Truly special students get lost in the crowd of very good students. In the year just before the SAT was recentered, 32 students nationwide scored a “perfect” 1600 on the combined math and verbal exams. The following year, after recentering, 545 students scored 1600, about 17 times more than under the old system. Coincidence or not, recentering is part of a leveling process in education, which attempts to minimize differences between students. With recentering, high scorers cluster together near the top of the distribution, making it easier for very selective schools to justify admitting more minorities. The SAT no longer distinguishes high-scoring minorities from higher achieving Whites and Asians.” http://lagriffedulion.f2s.com/women_and_minorities_in_science.htm
The College Board is subject to the PC powers that be that might get the universities to throw out the SAT use if blacks relatively look too bad.
This is just another of the many examples in which blacks and their black-power institutions, like the NAACP, are a powerful force for standard lowering & dumbing down.
“Noting the gap in achievement between lower-performing minority students and the general population, College Board officials said those who lagged tended to go to school in poorer districts with fewer resources.”
Yes, but with federal handouts these districts actually spend more per pupil than white and Asian schools. Still whitey’s fault though (as always).
Charles Tiffany wrote:
“Black Muslim kids, educated in Muslim schools, score a dead heat with whites from the best non black majority city schools. Muslims are married,teach manners and respect for authority, rejoice in their children, and demand high performance.”
Charles, I like reading your comments but would like to see some proof of this. I see NOI kids standing on the street corners of DC hawking their racist Final Call newspaper. I also knew a few black Muslims in the military and they did not seem any different than the other blacks (though they hated whites more).
“The performance of Asian students is very heartening. As a teacher, I can attest that one rarely finds a bad Asian student or person.”
Yet Asians rarely volunteer for anything or give to charity. Asian gangs plague many cities. By white standards, they are not particularly “good” or generous people. I have nothing against them, in Asia.
Its called the Bell Curve. Someday it will be accepted.
Dear Bernie # 31.Minister Farkhan graduated from Boston latin High School, same as John and John Quincy Adams. To this day, he spoeaks better Latin than the Pope He played the violin on the Ed Sullivan Show at age 7. He recieved a full scholarship to study music and graduated by age 19. His example has fostered the educational spirit of all Black Muslim Academies. How can anyone object to black seperatism? I`m all for it. If they want to scream and yell that whites are devils,Jews guttersnipes, and homosexuals garbage, that is fine by me. If they want five states as their own country, that`s fine. Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi would make the perfect country for all blacks. Those states had 90% of all slaves and brought the Civil war on us. So the heck with them. They could call it black Eden and as long as they all stayed there it would be wonderful.
Reply to Charles B. Tiffany:
Your post interested me. One question. What about Florida? It would become kind of like East Prussia between the wars.
