Are Americans becoming more or less alike? Trends in race, class, and ability differences in intelligence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13351425 |
|---|---|
| Authors | W M Williams (0000-0001-6666-4000, Cornell University, corresponding author), Stephen J Ceci (0000-0002-2835-9707) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 11 |
| Pages | 1226-1235 |
| Publication date | 1997-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Psychologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-066X • E-ISSN: 1935-990X |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1037/0003-066x.52.11.1226 |
| OpenAlex | W2127076769 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 8 |
American students ' test scores have been slowly but steadily declining for the past half century. Some recent explanations for this decline have focused on dysgenic trends resulting from low-IQ parents outbreeding high-IQ parents. In this article, the authors examined the evi-dence for dysgenic trends byconsidering race-, class-, and ability-related changes in intelligence t st scores over time. They concluded that (a) racial differences in intelligence decreased from 1973 to 1988 and have re-mained fairly constant since, (b) intelligence differences between the upper and lower thirds of social class groups have been decreasing slightly since 1932, and (c) Prelim-inary Scholastic Assessment Test-score differences be-tween the top and bottom quartiles have been relatively stable since 1961. Thus, the authors found no evidence supporting the dysgenic hypothesis. Rather, the combined evidence points to a growing convergence across racial, socioeconomic, and ability-related segments of American society. ~ t's no longer news: American students ' test scores have been slowly but steadily declining to the point that the children of America's major trading partners have overtaken American children. Consider several signs of the decline. Despite some recent gains, U.S. children's achievement test scores in math and science have not kept pace with the scores of European and Asian children. Math scores for 13-year-olds fell from 4th place out of 17 nations in 1971 to 14th place by 1986; similar declines can be charted for 9- and 17-year-olds in virtually all areas except reading (Bronfenbrenner, McClelland, Weth-ington, Moen, & Ceci, 1996). Other indications of decline include the following: Within a 20-year period, Scholas-tic Assessment Test (SAT) scores slid by a full standard deviation, from 980 in 1963 to 890 in 1981 (Berliner
Class (philosophy · Developmental psychology · Race (biology · Sociology · Artificial Intelligence · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Computer Science · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Gender Studies · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Gerontology
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| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.31 |
| Citation span | 1997 - 2026 (30) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |