Comments on: The Effects of America’s Three Affirmative Action Programs on Academic Performance. http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/06/the-effects-of-americas-three-affirmative-action-programs-on-academic-performance/ The Future is Here Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:26:42 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Lester Spence http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/06/the-effects-of-americas-three-affirmative-action-programs-on-academic-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-2542 Lester Spence Tue, 08 May 2007 10:44:06 +0000 http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/06/the-effects-of-americas-three-affirmative-action-programs-on-academic-performance/#comment-2542 I think you are absolutely right, but it is going to be tough...not just because there are a variety of institutions that support the status quo. How can we best sift through the literally tens of thousands of applications that schools get on the regular without some type of exam? I don't have the article yet, but remind me. I think you are absolutely right, but it is going to be tough…not just because there are a variety of institutions that support the status quo. How can we best sift through the literally tens of thousands of applications that schools get on the regular without some type of exam?

I don’t have the article yet, but remind me.

]]> By: Submariner http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/06/the-effects-of-americas-three-affirmative-action-programs-on-academic-performance/comment-page-1/#comment-2489 Submariner Mon, 07 May 2007 04:13:56 +0000 http://blacksmythe.com/blog/2007/05/06/the-effects-of-americas-three-affirmative-action-programs-on-academic-performance/#comment-2489 Dr. Spence, you're going to have to school me on this subject. Can you provide a link to the article? I first came across this phrase, stereotype threat, while reading Claude Steele's response in Who's Qualified? by Lani Guinier and Susan Sturm. He described it as the anxiety a person feels about being in a test situation in which a poor performance confirms a negative stereotype about a group in which one belongs. He used it to explain achievement gaps that exist when comparing highly qualified black and white students and its role in causing talented black kids to disconnect from the classroom. He also showed that by substituting simple words like 'problem solving ' for 'aptitude' then these gaps were eliminated. The truth is that tests are obstacles that folks outside the halls of power must navigate in order to be seen as legitimate. If you are a white male with a hook-up then it doesn't matter. For example, G.W. Bush proudly proclaims that he was a C student at Yale. And Jerome Karabel's book The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton recounts how Dick Chaney used privileged access to gain entry to Yale and failed out after his first year. Yet dude still ended up being a major player and is the most powerful Vice President in history. We need a reform movement that challenges the idea that pencil and paper, one shot, winner takes all, high stakes tests are valid measures of merit and an efficient way of selecting the best candidates for elite schools and jobs. Dr. Spence, you’re going to have to school me on this subject. Can you provide a link to the article? I first came across this phrase, stereotype threat, while reading Claude Steele’s response in Who’s Qualified? by Lani Guinier and Susan Sturm. He described it as the anxiety a person feels about being in a test situation in which a poor performance confirms a negative stereotype about a group in which one belongs. He used it to explain achievement gaps that exist when comparing highly qualified black and white students and its role in causing talented black kids to disconnect from the classroom. He also showed that by substituting simple words like ‘problem solving ‘ for ‘aptitude’ then these gaps were eliminated.
The truth is that tests are obstacles that folks outside the halls of power must navigate in order to be seen as legitimate. If you are a white male with a hook-up then it doesn’t matter. For example, G.W. Bush proudly proclaims that he was a C student at Yale. And Jerome Karabel’s book The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton recounts how Dick Chaney used privileged access to gain entry to Yale and failed out after his first year. Yet dude still ended up being a major player and is the most powerful Vice President in history. We need a reform movement that challenges the idea that pencil and paper, one shot, winner takes all, high stakes tests are valid measures of merit and an efficient way of selecting the best candidates for elite schools and jobs.

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