Reply to Why don't white students go to Banneker?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why would you not think your white student can score higher than MoCo average for white scores at Banneker?[/quote]

Because white students' scores are higher because they go to schools with lots of other people with high scores. Your logic would make more sense if whites were somehow inherently better at the SATs than blacks, such that any other difference away from the mean has to be explained by school performance. But of course that's not true. Their scores are higher because of some combination of cultural biases on the test and because they spend more time in peer groups of other kids who are likely to obtain high scores. Regardless of the precise balance of reasons that white scores are higher, the surest way to perpetuate that high score is to send your kid to a school with high overall test scores and a lot of white kids.[/quote]

Testing gaps appear before Kindergarten. The issue is a lot more complex than what you make it appear to be.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/etc/gap.html
[/quote]

I agree I was oversimplifying, but the linchpin of the argument "if black Banneker students score above the average for blacks, then white Banneker students would score above the average for whites" is that the reason black Banneker students outperform the average for blacks is because of something unique to Banneker that would necessarily apply equally to whites (and would be unavailable at the other schools white students might attend). And there is no reason to make that assumption. Maybe black Banneker students outperform the average for blacks because they test in to the school. Or maybe they outperform the average for blacks because the fact that they applied shows that they have parents who are unusually invested in their education. Or maybe Banneker gives them the opportunity to attend a school with other highly-motivated and intelligent black students, and that helps bolster their success. There's no reason to assume that any of those factors would apply in the same manner and to the same degree to a white student.[/quote]

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