Page 436 - Sociology and You

406 Unit 4 Social Institutions
automobile) as its illustration. Several studies have indicated that because most intelligence tests assume fluency in English, minorities cannot do as well on in- telligence tests. Some researchers have suggested that many urban African American students are superior to their white classmates on several dimensions of verbal capacity, but this ability is not recognized, because intelligence tests do not measure those specific areas (Gould, 1981; Goleman, 1988; Hurn, 1993).
Some researchers have shown that the testing situation itself affects per- formance. Low-income and minority students, for example, score higher on intelligence tests when tested by adult members of their own race or income group. Apparently children can feel threatened when tested in a strange en- vironment by someone dissimilar to them. Middle-class children are fre- quently eager to take the tests because they have been taught the importance both of test results and of academic competitiveness. Because low-income children do not recognize the importance of tests and have not been taught to be academically competitive, they ignore some of the questions or look for something more interesting to do. Other researchers report that nutrition seems to play a role in test performance. Low-income children with poor diets may do less than their best when they are hungry or when they lack particular types of food over long periods of time.
Promoting Educational Equality
Although it is difficult to completely overcome the barriers of economic and social class, policy makers and educators are exploring ways to promote edu- cational equality. Two methods are school desegregation and compensatory education.
school desegregation
the achievement of a racial balance in the classroom
The governor of Nebraska, Mike Johanns, is part of a program to educate school students on the culture of minority groups in their state.
Does desegregation always pro- mote equality? In this discussion, school desegregation refers to the achievement of a racial balance in the classroom. Desegregated classrooms can have either positive or negative effects on the academic achievement of minority children. Mere physical desegregation without adequate sup- port may actually harm both white and African American children. However, desegregated classrooms with an atmosphere of respect and ac- ceptance improve academic perfor- mance (Orfield et al., 1992).
Minority students who attend de- segregated public schools get better jobs and earn higher incomes than mi- nority students who attend segregated schools. The formal education they re- ceive is only part of the reason. Middle- class students become models for the behavior, dress, and language often re- quired by employers in the middle- class hiring world.