Andrea,
  Thanks for mentioning the socio-economic influences on assessments.
Although you mention one study, I am sure there are many.
  Regarding what the noble prize winners had to say, one is an
economist. The fame of neither allows us to believe that every thought
they have is golden.
  Stephen Jay Gould wrote an enlightening book entitled, "The
Mismeasure of Man". In it he takes a very critical and analytical look
at the idea of the bell curve and testing.
   I am an ABE instructor, not a professional researcher. However,
this topic does indeed need more rearch, and if I knew how to pick up
the baton, I would run with it.
Jackie

On 10/19/07, Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net> wrote:

> Marie--

>

> I'm from MA.  I see nothing wrong with comprehensive tests based on

> taught class material as a graduation requirement.  The problem lies in

> kids' backgrounds and teaching skills. This  is the context. In MA,

> there are students who do not pass the tests.  They are subsequently

> given many opportunities to retake the tests.  Kids with weak

> educational backgrounds will have a harder time.  This is where quality

> of teaching, number of students in the class, a safe school, are

> important.

>

> As to intelligence tests.  They describe something, but what?

>

> Way back in the sixties, Gerald Lesser issued a report that compared

> children from different and class and ethnic groups.  His findings:

> the skills/aptitude of middle class kids all fell in the same range,

> while the same was true for poor kids.  The PROFILES of scores were

> different for each ethnic group.  A problem:  girls scores were not

> disaggregated--this was before feminism.  The study was not

> published--it was done around 1964, I  think, and the political fallout

> would have been  catnip for some, I guess.   There are maybe 2 copies

> at the Ed School, Harvard.

>

> Andrea

>

> On Oct 19, 2007, at 12:44 PM, Marie Cora wrote:

>

> > Colleagues:  the following post is from Tom Sticht.  When Tom first

> > sent

> > this email to be posted, I initially questioned the relevance of it for

> > the assessment discussion list.  There are certainly connections here,

> > but part of what this List is intended for is to be true to the issue

> > of

> > learner assessment.  So Tom and I had an email exchange and he said to

> > me:

> >

> > "I think the whole IQ and intelligence debate centers on test

> > (assessment) results, as Watson said. So I thought it was a natural for

> > the Assessment folks..."

> >

> > which convinced me that it is indeed relevant.

> >

> > What are your thoughts - either on the content of Tom's article, or on

> > my and his exchange, for that matter?

> >

> > This also makes me think of the hotly debated issue of using

> > comprehensive tests to determine whether a child graduates from high

> > school - or whether a fast-track GED is a good thing or not.

> >

> > What are your thoughts?

> >

> > Marie Cora

> > Assessment Discussion List Moderator

> >

> > **********

> >

> > October 17, 2007

> >

> > Genes, Intelligence, Literacy, and Racism

> >

> > Tom Sticht

> > International Consultant in Adult Education

> >

> > The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) found that, as

> > with

> > most general literacy and other broadband cognitive assessments of the

> > last

> > century, African-Americans scored well below White adults. Perhaps for

> > most

> > people, this signifies that greater efforts are needed in the education

> > of

> > African-Americans. But for some others, this may simply reinforce the

> > belief that African-Americans are genetically lower in intelligence

> > compared to Whites and this shows itself in the differences in literacy

> > scores.

> >

> > According to an article on the web site for The Independent news

> > service

> > in

> > London, England for 17 October 2007, online at

> > http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3067222.ece, James

> > Watson,

> > a

> > Nobel Prize winner for work on DNA and genetics, thinks that Africans

> > are

> > less intelligent than Westerners. The article states that in a recent

> > interview Watson "claimed that black people were less intelligent than

> > white people and the idea that "equal powers of reason" were shared

> > across

> > racial groups was a delusion." According to The Independent, Watson

> > said

> > that "Western policies towards African countries were wrongly based on

> > an

> > assumption that black people were as clever as their white counterparts

> > when "testing" suggested the contrary. He claimed genes responsible for

> > creating differences in human intelligence could be found within a

> > decade."

> >

> > In an earlier interview in 2005, another Nobel Prize laureate, this

> > time

> > for

> > economics, James Heckman discussed his ideas about cognitive skills and

> > their malleability in later life with  members of a presidential

> > commission

> > consisting of  former U.S. senators, heads of federal agencies, tax

> > attorneys and academic economists.  In his comments Heckman expressed

> > his

> > belief that "IQ is basically formed by age 8, and there are huge

> > differences in IQ among people. . I think these observations on human

> > skill

> > formation are exactly why the job training programs aren't working in

> > the

> > United States and why many remediation programs directed toward

> > disadvantaged young adults are so ineffective."

> >

> > That these kinds of beliefs by Nobel Prize winners are more widespread

> > and

> > influential in affecting policies and funding for adult literacy

> > education

> > is illustrated in a Forbes Magazine article for October 2, 2000.

> > Written

> > by

> > Dan Seligman, a widely read commentator, the article discussed the

> > National

> > Adult Literacy Survey (NAL) of 1993  and argued that the test was not

> > about

> > literacy and said, "The cluster of abilities being examined is

> > obviously

> > a

> > proxy for plain old "intelligence." Remarking then about the "familiar

> > old

> > bell curve" Seligman says, ".do not tell us that government or any

> > other

> > institution is going to transform this situation." This clearly

> > reflects

> > the belief that the literacy test was actually a test of intelligence,

> > that

> > the latter is genetically based, and was not going to be changed by

> > adult

> > literacy programs.

> >

> > These sorts of comments by Nobel prize laureates and well-placed

> > popular

> > writers are not good for adult literacy education.  They can convince

> > policymakers and funding organizations that investments in adult

> > literacy

> > education are not worthwhile. For instance, the New York Times for

> > January

> > 20, 2000 published an article by Kevin Sack about a gift of $100

> > million

> > being given to schools in Mississippi to promote the teaching of

> > reading

> > to

> > children. The article says that the philanthropist giving the money and

> > "many experts are less than bullish on the prospects for attacking

> > adult

> > illiteracy." The philanthropist is then quoted as saying, "What this

> > program says is that we can't solve the adult literacy problem but we

> > can

> > work with the children."

> >

> > In addition to the deleterious effects of these types of comments on

> > adult

> > literacy education funding, they foment racist thinking and the

> > denigration

> > of African-Americans and others whose performance on various

> > standardized

> > tests are below those of Whites. For these reasons it is important for

> > the

> > adult education field to challenge these beliefs with renewed

> > commitments

> > to educational practice. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy

> > (NAAL)

> > of 2003 showed that 67 percent of African-American adults scored at the

> > Basic or Below Basic literacy levels for prose tasks. Unfortunately

> > enrollments of African-Americans in the Adult Education and Literacy

> > system

> > of the United States fell by 13,073 from 548,562 in fiscal year 2000-01

> > to

> > 535,489 in fiscal year 2003-04, the last year for which I have found

> > data

> > for the nation. Concerted efforts are needed to attract adult

> > African-Americans with underdeveloped literacy skills into adult

> > literacy

> > education programs and to provide the best education possible.

> >

> >> From researchers in the field of adult literacy education, help is

> > needed in

> > dispelling these ideas about intelligence. Even discussing conceptual

> > frameworks such as "multiple intelligences" may give some the

> > impression

> > that there is something "real" about various intelligences with which

> > one

> > could be genetically endowed. This includes verbal and quantitative

> > intelligences of the sort generally used in developing IQ tests and

> > pointed

> > to as factors distinguishing African-Americans as inferior to Whites in

> > intelligence. Despite 15 years of federally funded adult literacy

> > research

> > centers, I have yet to find any research by adult literacy researchers

> > with

> > which to counter the arguments by the Nobel Prize winners, mal-informed

> > popular journalists, and philanthropists cited above, and others not

> > cited.

> > This suggests that there is an urgent need for adult literacy

> > researchers to

> > fight against the ideological foundations of racism that stigmatize

> > adult

> > literacy education in general and the literacy education of

> > African-American adults in particular.

> >

> > NOTE: For an extended discussion of issues related to ideas that

> > marginalize

> > adult literacy education see the last of my papers at

> > http://adulted.about.com/od/adultbasiceducation/a/sticht.htm

> > This paper deals with issues of IQ, brain science, adult literacy and

> > debunks myths that hold adult literacy education back.

> >

> > Thomas G. Sticht

> > International Consultant in Adult Education

> > 2062 Valley View Blvd.

> > El Cajon, CA 92019-2059

> > Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133

> > Email: tsticht at aznet.net

> >

> >

> >

> > -------------------------------

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> >

>

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