Reply to New York Top Schools - Top marks largely go to Asians. Bill de Blasio wants to change the exams

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

There are plenty of smart kids in all races and ethnicities. An exam (not just this exam -- any exam) is an imperfect means of identifying them.[/quote]

maybe, maybe not... how do you explain the fact Asian/White kids score consistently higher on any and all tests? just a coincidence? i think not. [/quote]

Because exams are imperfect means of identifying smart kids of all races and ethnicities.

Unless you're suggesting that there is something inherently smarter about white and Asian kids than black and Latino kids? I certainly hope that you're not suggesting that. Not only would it be racist, it would be profoundly ignorant of biology.[/quote]

[b]I think by lowering standards of an academic test to gain entrance into an academic institution for academic purposes is implying that some races are not academically smart.  [/b]

Yes, there are all kinds of smart kids - some are good in music, dance, sports, spatial reasoning...and so there are competitions that measure these specific kind of intelligence too.

Since exams are such an imperfect way - we should eliminate all exams.  Harvard can institute some kind of "Hunger Games" kind of scenario and the survivor gets admitted to it. [/quote]

No, it is saying that academic tests are a measure of prerequisite knowledge.  It is a mistake to consider standardized tests, measures of intelligence.  It's a measure of current levels of memorization of standardized knowledge such as spelling, definitions, synonyms/antonyms, basic mathematics, etc.  It is more accurate to say that only kids that have a certain number of prerequisite knowledge are admitted and that the standardized test is a measure of their prerequisite knowledge.  This then highlights why those who are more prepared or spend more time prepping do better.  Standardized tests are not IQ tests.

And offering test prep courses to any lower income students who qualify is the way to off-set this.  They can then have the advantage of test prep classes that they might otherwise not be able to afford.  And you can offer this without lowering the standards or the acceptance rates even for smaller demographics.  You direct those groups who are underrepresented to take the courses offered.[/quote]

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