Nisbett Wrong, Again—No Black Gains In Reading and Mathematics Over Five Decades by Professor J. Philippe Rushton
In my last VDARE article, I critically examined Richard Nisbett’s book, Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count. Nisbett, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, [email him],received the most favorable reviews, not only in the media, but academia as well, for arguing that there has been a 35% Black gain relative to Whites in average IQ test scores and tests of educational achievement. Moreover, Nisbett asserted (incorrectly, it turned out) that cultural factors alone could explain all the Black-White gaps—which he also claimed could be eliminated altogether through educational and social interventions.
All of which was just what the huge sector of the Education Industry devoted to closing the racial “Achievement Gap” wanted to hear. But it was wrong.
(My article was based on a longer academic review [PDF] that Arthur Jensen and I contributed to The Open Psychology Review).
Now I want to focus these allegedly improving Black scores in more detail. This article too is based on an academic journal essay by Arthur Jensen and myself: in the March 2010 issue of Intelligence, The rise and fall of the Flynn Effect as a reason to expect a narrowing of the Black-White IQ gap.
When Jensen and I reviewed Nisbett’s book, we noted that his claims of Black IQ gains relative to whites were far too high. But, in common with other race realist scientists, we tended to assume there must have been some improvement.
However, our new analysis finds that from 1954 to 2008 Black 17-year-olds consistently scored at the level of White 14-year-olds on tests of mathematics and reading—i.e. in more than fifty years, there had been no significant change at all.
Source:
Nisbett Wrong, Again—No Black Gains In Reading and Mathematics Over Five Decades by Professor J. Philippe Rushton
vdare.com
I’ve said it many times–not only is it a waste to throw money away trying all sorts of schemes hoping to improve black performance in the classroom, it is also unfair to blacks as well.
Since the false religion of diversity refuses to recognize the huge differences amongst the races, adherents continue to identify social and economic issues as the culprits keeping blacks behind Whites and Asians in academic achievement. These problems, as we know, cannot be solved by using millions of dollars to try and improve a disparity that is, in truth, physiological in origin.
It is also unfair to blacks to true and push them beyond what they are capable of. The frustration that must occur in those students who want to achieve but have reached the limit of their abilities must be intense and will eventually contribute to a high dropout rate. The shorter attention span, the lack of discipline that is required to sit in a classroom for hours and absorb the material are major problems for the majority of black students. Coupled with differences in those parts of the brain having to do with learning will assure that disruption and dropout rates for blacks continue to soar.
There are on occasions blacks who are capable of higher learning and these should be nurtured, but to just toss huge amounts of money at a problem that can never be rectified is not only a waste of taxpayer dollars but an effort in futility, as this article points out. No amount of skewering of statistics or wishful interpretation of them is going to change this.
Biology is the final determinant, and it cannot be bought, cajoled or bribed. It amazes me that so many people refuse to see or accept this.