undead astronauts

a study has come out that asked college freshmen how many AP courses they took in high school. this is not a measure of iq. it is only a measure of how hard a student is willing to push himself in high school. obviously asians answered that they took more AP courses than other groups. this is in spite of the fact that more white and hispanic kids went to schools that offered AP courses. from previous studies u might then expect the following group order: asians, whites, hispanics, blacks. but in fact it doesn’t go that way.

hispanics actually take more AP courses than whites. looking further into the numbers, u see that a higher percentage of hispanics go to schools where AP classes are offered. but even so, the numbers show that hispanic kids are willing to work harder in the classroom.

unfortunately even though they take the class at higher rates, their rate of scoring 3’s or above is lower than whites. so while it may be that they work harder than whites, hispanics aren’t seeing all the fruits that might be expected from that hard work.

hat tip to 8asians for the story link.

another steve sailor related post dealing w/ testing and ricci aftermath. he posts the percent of AP test takers who pass each test (earn 3, 4, or 5) by race in 2008. the reason he does this is b/c the equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) that came up w/ the regulation that a test is racially “valid” only if the lowest scoring group passes at 80% of the rate of the highest scoring group. i considered posting the numbers, but u should just go to steve’s site for that.

the upshot is that none of the 38 AP tests conform to the 4/5 rule set by the EEOC. if attending college was considered a job, AP tests would be illegal. the tests where NAMs come closest to reaching 80% are french (74%), 3d studio art(73%), spanish lit (73%), and 2d studio art (72%).
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