The Homa Files

When questioned in the debate re: his support for Common Core, Jeb Bush gave a mushy (and self-contradictory) answer .

When he was done, I wasn’t sure if he was for it or against it.

For his punch line, he reverted to the universal “we need to set higher standards” argument.

A couple of other candidates jumped in to praise higher standards.

Sounds like motherhood, right?

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I’m not so sure ….

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First, an analogy.

With some heavy rounding, I’m 5’ 9” inches tall.

Shocker  I can’t dunk a basketball on a 10 feet high basket.

I bet that a specialized coach could get my vertical leap upped by a couple of inches … but far short of dunking.

What’ll happen if the basket is raised to 11 feet?

Conceivably, I’d try harder and my vertical leap would stretch a bit higher …  but I doubt it.

Most likely, I’d quit banging my head against the wall and switch sports.

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The Apparent Problem

According to numerous sources :

“In a recent comparison of academic performance in 57 countries, students in the United States performed near the middle of the pack.

On average 16 other industrialized countries scored above the United States in science, and 23 scored above us in math.

Experts noted that the United States’ scores remained about the same in math between 2003 and 2006, the two most recent years the test.”

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The Oft-repeated Solution:

Raise academic standards and make them consistent from state-to-state

Bingo. Problem solved.

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Primed by the above analogy, I started wondering whether the issue is really that standards are too low …

After some cursory web-searching, I can’t tell if the Common Core standards are really more stringent or just different.

Old-timers might remember when the U.S. was going to adopt new standards by going metric.

How did that work out?

With no evidence to the contrary, I’ll stipulate that the Common Core standards are higher and more contemporary.

In other words, let’s hike the basket up to 11 feet.

So, the analogous question reduces to: are we underachieving for our height, or just too short?

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The IQ shortfall

Keep in mind the finding that U.S. students were in the middle of a 57 country pack re: science and math scores.

Where do U.S. students stand re: IQ?

Answer: Tied for 19th place in the world (list below).

In other words, academic performance seems to correlate pretty closely with IQ.

That’s a shocker isn’t it.

Of course, correlation isn’t necessarily causation.

Still, seems like a relationship worth looking into, right?

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So, why obsess over standards?

Easy answer: Because it’s doable.

Just print up some new standards, mail them out … and declare victory.

You know, just raise the basket.

That’s a lot easier than making everybody taller … or smarter

Think about it …

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IQ Ranks by Country

Rank	Country	IQ
1	Hong Kong	107
2	South Korea	106
3	Japan	105
4	Taiwan	104
5	Singapore	103
6	Austria	102
6	Germany	102
6	Italy	102
6	Netherlands	102
10	Sweden	101
10	Switzerland	101
12	Belgium	100
12	China	100
12	New Zealand	100
12	United Kingdom	100
16	Hungary	99
16	Poland	99
16	Spain	99
19	Australia	98
19	Denmark	98
19	France	98
19	Mongolia	98
19	Norway	98
19	United States	98
25	Canada	97
25	Czech Republic	97
25	Finland	97
28	Argentina	96
28	Russia	96
28	Slovakia	96
28	Uruguay	96
28	Portugal	95
32	Slovenia	95
34	Israel	94
34	Romania	94
36	Bulgaria	93
36	Ireland	93
36	Greece	93
39	Malaysia	92
40	Thailand	91
41	Croatia	90
41	Peru	90
41	Turkey	90
44	Colombia	89
44	Indonesia	89
44	Suriname	89
47	Brazil	87
47	Iraq	87
47	Mexico	87
47	Samoa	87
47	Tonga	87

Source: Intelligence and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations

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This entry was posted on August 11, 2015 at 6:59 am and is filed under Common Core, Education - Academics, IQ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.