1968 Rosenthal And Jacobson

Additionally, Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” There are different forms of intelligence that go beyond what our school system measures. Students are not a unit to be measured, and students cannot be assigned a numerical value to identify their intelligence. Students are diverse—they learn at different speeds, and they learn in different ways. Focusing solely on test scores is hurting our students and deviating away from building our society on success and excellence. Critics are slowly realizing the problems associated with standardized tests—they create anxiety, they are extremely biased, and they do not measure the ability to think deeply.

Gallagher (2003) suggested that testing offered a way to identify students who might go on to great things while avoiding wasting resources on "slow children." This went along with the increase of academic tracking to determine which career paths were appropriate for students. In the 1960s, the federal government started pushing new achievement tests intended to assess instructional methods and schools.

In a study conducted Rosenthal and Jacobson they examined the exceptions of teachers from their students and self-fulling prophecy. They believe the central problem of so many kids failing school is because of kids with disadvantages. They are lower class children who live in poverty and being taught by middle class teachers. They are the Mexican American, Puerto Ricans and African Americans. These teachers are white females who are middle class and teaching the “disadvantage” which leads to the teacher expectations for them to fail. (Apa)

The role of the environment was minimalized due to Burt’s (1909) theory, intelligence was viewed as a fixed inborn state that could neither be developed or changed (Parrington 1996). Burt’s (1909) influence came from his research through the years 1920 to 1970, when children were segregated by capability. This was noticeable during secondary education

Have you ever studied for a test only to find out that the grade you got is not what you expected it to be and that your friend who had practice for a sport, an interview and who was working on a project days before the test got a high grade on the test? Well according to Douglas Barton individuals often fall into misconception, on the idea that performance on tests and natural intelligence are the same and that some of us are just more intellectually gifted. Barton in his “What do top students do differently?” a TEDx youth talk points out that success in individual performance comes from the dedication and initiative to go beyond what the average student does.

Albert Einstein once stated, “not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.” High-stakes testing attempts to determine the knowledge a person has obtained throughout grades K-12. These standardized tests are being used to judge a person’s ability to graduate from high school and also judge if a child has enough knowledge to proceed to the next grade level. Throughout this paper, I will be discussing how these tests do not accurately portray one’s intelligence, how they have increased drop out rates, and also show the damaging psychological affects they have had.

Many scholars believe that "the new science of behavioral genetics has intellectual roots in the old ideas of Eugenics" (Steen 33). Eugenics disguised a political agenda as a scientific one in an attempt to endow discrimination with credibility. Supporters of genetic determinism theories do the same. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray defend the theory of genetic determinism in The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, which was published ten years ago. Their book is one of the most widely referenced works regarding the theory that intelligence is inherited. The authors claim that the social order mirrors natural selection, wherein the genetically superior or more intelligent human rises to the top. Of course this means that the lower class, predominantly blacks, are represented as genetically inferior (xxi-xxiii). The authors claim that "ethnic differences in cognitive ability are neither surprising nor in doubt" (269) and attribute the inequality of life among Americans to inherent differences between races in intelligence (127). Their argument rests on the assertion that intelligence is both inheritable and immutable and is supported by intelligence test scores. The text is full of contradictions and a close analysis proves it to be lacking in evidence and smacking of social myth. Their theories are developed using speculation and are tainted by bias. There is no science involved.

Rosenthal and Jacobson visited an elementary school and gave IQ tests to the students. They randomly selected 20% of the students in the school and labeled these students as having especially high potential for success. At the end of the year, the students were retested. The students who had been labeled as bright had scored significantly better than their peers. Teachers also rated these students with more positive characteristics than other students. The teachers’ high expectations for these students may have meant that they exposed these children to different material, expected more of them, and taught them differently. The children also probably changed their behavior in response to what was expected of them. This allowed, positive expectations

The major findings of that report indicated that the effects of these tests on social classes were ‘strong and consistent’ and that while ‘the upper respondent is more likely to favor the use of tests than the lower class respondent,’ the lower class respondent is more likely to see intelligence tests measuring inborn intelligence (Garrison).

There they found that the race differences were drastically different from the average where white children scored and average of 106, Mixed-Race children averaged 99, and Black children’s average was 89. The model does have a defect, since poverty, slavery, and White racism has limited the normal levels of intelligence. The study made an analogy which I think help explain the limited intelligence levels. Corn seeds given a normal environment grow plants of full height whereas seeds given a deprived environment grow plants of stunted height. According to this view, cultural deprivation is the cause of any Black–White IQ differences. Another effect is environmental differences between the races, which include common or between family effects. So even if a child is brought up in a household or adopted, each child will be raised the same way. Therefore, leading to a better chance of them having closer to the same IQ test. There are things that could affect this idea, for example different genetics or an event that one sibling experienced but not the other. As children get older, if they are not related, they will grow to be different as they start to reach adulthood. A person's genetic similarities increase as they age, but IQ does decrease in a shared home environment. If someone is born or raised in an academically based parents, they may inherit their

The Rosenthal and Jacobson experiment was conducted at Oak school with children of all ages. Children were given an IQ test to serve as a baseline for the experiment. The teachers where told which students were "ready to bloom" aka had optimal IQ's. This was a made up statement to lead the teachers to believe that some students scored higher on the test than others and thus labeled as smarter. After the period of time was over all of the students were retested for IQ. The students falsely labeled as "ready to bloom" saw the highest IQ gains. The highest gains were seen in the younger children. This experiment is a perfect example of a self-fulfilling prophecy where students were randomly labeled as smarter than other students and they ended

There are two opposing sides when it comes to the issue of IQ testing in schools. Many advocates believe that IQ testing is the best way to identify and assess children’s levels of aptitude and that it is useful in determining who amongst the general school population need additional specialized or differentiated instruction and extra services (GATE or even IEP) that may not be otherwise be provided for in a regular classroom. It is also a tool which can be taken advantage of to help teachers prepare, develop and design better strategies that meet the requirements of all types of learners in the classroom. Should there be perceived and observed learning challenges and disabilities,

When IQ tests first came about, many of the questions were designed based on American Culture and discriminated highly against immigrants. It was commonly believed during that time period that those particular groups of individuals were not well suited for success and were denied a higher education. Similar to that of the World war years, children in the 21st century who have English as a second language struggle on standardized exams because of linguistic or cultural differences. Some standardized tests are primarily normed for middle to upper class cocasions making it extremely difficult for those who do not fit within the “norm” to do well. Besides for the fact that these exams aren’t properly normed for the overall population taking them, a lack of funding is also a predominant reason for poor testing results. Other issues such as learning disabilities like ADHD, Dyslexia or severe handicapping conditions will also affect the outcome of the child's test results and will unfairly put a teacher’s job on the line. No matter how severe a child’s disability may be, all children are required to take these standardized tests in order for the school to get funding from the state. There was an article released on March 5th 2014 about a disturbing video that showed teachers administering standardized tests to a group of kids that were barely functioning. In Long’s article she describes “These children had straps and buckles to keep their bodies upright in their wheelchairs and their eyes were either closed or unfocused. Most of them have the brain development and

The IQ test was one of the first standardized tests introduced in this country. Its purpose was to be used by the military to efficiently place the influx of soldiers into positions, due to the draft during WWI. The purpose of the exam was to gauge a person’s skill set and their abilities in order to place them in a category, in this case, a line of work. While the test did what it set out to do, but it favored better for middle to upper class white males. Ivy league educational institutions took notice of the results and developed entrance exams to universities that would discriminate specifically against Jews, so they would not be accepted. Since the early 1900’s, standardized testing has always discriminated against certain groups, and over

Arbitrary, too narrow in scope, and biased are just a few of the things that come up when psychologists, teachers and parents discuss how to determine if children are gifted and talented. In the United States, 6 to 10 percent of school age children are labeled “gifted” and are placed into classes that cater to their advanced abilities (National Association of Gifted Children, 2014). School age children, in some states, can be as young as four years old. A lot of the controversy starts right there: how can four year olds be expected to take a challenging IQ assessment and then have their score on that test determine their classroom placement for the next 13 years?