Word: iq
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...your story about Arthur Jensen's conclusion that blacks score lower on IQ tests than whites [Sept. 24], you say "Jensen's findings clearly have horrendous implications." This is not at all true. Although the entire black population may (if Jensen's findings are correct) have a lower average IQ than the white population, a given black person may have a higher IQ than a given white person. Thus one cannot say that all blacks are less intelligent than all whites. Jensen's findings, regardless of their validity (and it may not be worthwhile spending time...
...examiners who conduct tests seem to have little or no bearing on the lower scores of blacks, and Jensen insists that his analysis shows no sign that the tests are missing anything important. The graph curve that shows the number of blacks who have achieved each score in the IQ range is the same shape as the curve showing white achievement-except that it is displaced lower on the scale. And the ranking of test items in order of difficulty for blacks, he says, is exactly the same as the ranking for whites. "This means the items are working...
Cross-cultural testing can show widely different patterns in answering IQ questions, but no such differences show up between black and white children in the U.S., according to Jensen. Says he: "There is no way to discriminate or distinguish between the average ten-year-old black and the average 8½-year-old white. The tests look the same, but the black child has a lower mental age. It looks more like a developmental lag than a cultural difference...
Jensen's findings clearly have horrendous implications. Indeed, they come close to saying that blacks are a natural and permanent underclass-an idea so shocking that the book is likely to spark the most explosive debate yet over race and IQ. While his critics will not have their shots until his book is published, their job, according to Jensen, is simple enough: disprove the evidence or learn to live with it. But he is confident that his evidence will stand. "I think I have shown that the black-white differences are real, not artifacts of the test system...
Jensen says he might be willing to oppose IQ testing in elementary schools, because such tests seem pointless, except to scan for the occasional bright underachiever who needs special help. Later on, he says, testing is essential to assure fairness in competition for college and good jobs. "It's better to rely on a test than on the whims of an interviewer or employer. The tests are color blind, and that should be reassuring...