A Reader Writes On Tracking And Affirmative Action
05/30/2011
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Re: Steve Sailer's blog item The Forever War Over Tracking

From: James Buster [Email him]

I think you underestimate the teachers. It's not just about tracking. Removing the middle tier will have the effect of lowering average AP tier test scores while raising standard tier test scores. The improvement in both absolute and relative scoring for the standard tier, which is entirely a statistical artifact, will be touted as proof that public schools do a good job and thus teachers need more money. Naturally, the change in the composition of the students taking the tests will not be mentioned.

I can't help but notice title inflation in the tiers. Since when did a 100 IQ tier merit being called "honors"?

There was a very similar paper written a while back about black law school students. It basically found that giving them AA slots in top-tier law schools like Harvard was setting them up to flunk out and never be lawyers at all, whereas if they had gone to second-tier schools they very likely would have graduated. Not that I think we need more lawyers, but it does to show how feel-good liberal policies harm the people they purport to help.

James Fulford writes: Steve Sailer blogged about Law School Affirmative Action in 2007. His conclusion

"For blacks, the 43% of black law students who never pass the bar exam represent a well-above average group who could have used their 20s to do something more productive. "

The actual scholarly paper is A systemic analysis of affirmative action in American law schools, By Richard Sanders, Stanford Law Review, 2004.[PDF]

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