Word: iq
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Meanwhile, across the continent, a judge has just given a boost to one group of testing reformers. In San Francisco, U.S. District Court Judge Robert F. Peckham last month ruled that California could not use the common Stanford-Binet IQ test to screen pupils for placement in a special program for the "educable mentally retarded." California's EMR program is 25% black, although blacks make up only 10% of the statewide school population. Even under the improbable assumption that black children have 50% more mental retardation than white children, said Peckham, the EMR enrollment pattern had just one chance...
...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...
...should not surprise any open-minded scientist that what we measure as IQ might have a genetic distribution similar to that found for other traits. The real problem lies in placing value judgments on the presence or absence of a particular trait. Who can really say which human characteristics will prove most advantageous to mankind over the evolutionary scale of time...
Jensen's studies of IQ may or may not be valid; however, TIME's allusion to the Jews as being the smartest race on earth completely contradicts basic scientific knowledge. The Jews are not a race but are one of the world's myriad religions. Indeed, Judaism includes in its numbers individuals of many different races, including black, Oriental and Caucasian...
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...