The recent talk on list saddens me in some ways, so I thought I would
throw in a few observations from several decades of working with
"at-risk" students and from wrestling with these difficult issues.

1) I have been told repeatedly from admissions officers that high school
average is a much better predictor of college success than SAT or ACT
scores. Presumably that is because it measures things like work ethic and
maturity. Nowadays, these tests are also skewed by much higher percentage
of immigrants in the demographic. ESL students will almost always perform
misleadingly lower than ability. High scores on these tests do seem to
tell us something; Low scores on these tests are not nearly as reliable.

2) By all normal predictive measures, including significantly lower SAT's,
the students I teach (Educational Opportunity Program students)should
underperform "regular admission" students, but for several years now, that
has not been the case. Our most recent graduation audit puts our rates
above seventy percent, a handful of points higher than the university as a
whole. We compare very well with results for "Presidential Scholars". Our
most recent graduating EOP group also had higher average G.P.A.'s. The
reasons for this are numerous, but certainly one would be realistic
assessment coupled with high expectations. We expect our students to do
well, but we also do a great deal to get them up to speed. We also tell
them from day one that we expect them to think about graduate degrees and
professional careers, and many, lately more than half, do just that.
Graduation rates in the program twenty-five years ago were around
twenty-five percent. No doubt many thought it was a mistake to admit them,
that these kinds of students are not capable. Locally, at least, we have
turned that expectation around.

3) Even when average scores for a group are higher or lower than averages
for other groups, that can not and should not be used as a predictor of
how any one member of that group might perform. In other words, many
African-Americans score very high on those tests. Many Caucasions score
very low. Group identity, especially one as rough as "race", is not a
particularly good predictor of ability or of individual success.

4) We all need to admit that some groups are underperforming in very
painful ways. High school graduation rates in the inner cities are
woefully low, something that should trouble all of us. We need to do a
much better job of addressing that problem. Many of our schools are now
more deeply segregated than they were in the 1950's, and we now have deep
pockets of poverty in a relatively rich country. For years now, New York
state has been defying court orders to equalize spending in its schools.
(They might say "slowly complying".) Because we fund our schools largely
through property taxes, wealthy districts have tended to have more money
available for their schools, though poor districts have the greater need.
This is a national issue, not a local one.

5) We need to think of all our citizens as important resources for the
future of this country. And we will do a much better job of educating all
those citizens if we approach the task with high expectations. In my
program at least, I can say that high expectations have been highly
realistic.

6) None of this means that we should conspire toward a lowering of
standards. Standards mattter. I believe we should make standards far more
explicit and that we should have programs in place to help all students
along that path. To me, that means much more explicit understanding of
what literacy entails, and a much more explicit mentoring into those
literacy roles. If we want to be honest and not just politically correct,
then let us celebrate success when we find it and be honest about our own
deep failures.

Craig


Exchanges of points of view on this List can become quite complicated
> given
> the numerous participants and threads and sub-threads.  It would,
> therefore,
> have been helpul had Johanna cited the actual text to which she was
> replying
> in her following response to me:
>
> 'It is really kind of useless to talk about "race" and IQ without
> taking into consideration the nurture question...'
>
> May I also suggest in the politest way possible that Johanna and anyone
> else
> of likewise disposition resist the temptation to publicly comment on the
> putatively incorrect language use of other members.  If they cannot resist
> that particular temptation, they can compromise by helpfully explaining
> off-List to the offender where s/he is going wrong..
>
> Ron Sheen
>
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface
> at:
>      http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
> and select "Join or leave the list"
>
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/