Teachers' marks often correlate so weakly with the four abilities that heavy instructional time on them may be hard to justify in some schools¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 1925 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? The per-school correlations are frequently low, and in many cases so low that, if taken as indices of the abilities' value, the time schools spend on this phase of geometry is scarcely justified. → Minnick 1925
Evidence¶
Minnick 1925¶
Minnick, J. H. (1925). Certain abilities fundamental to the study of geometry. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=Certain+Abilities+Fundamental+to+the+Study+of+Geometry
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Authors' interpretation of the per-school correlation tables (Tables I-IV) for Tests A-D, where coefficients such as 0.111, 0.042 and 0.126 fell below three probable errors in several schools. This is an interpretive statement, not a tested result.
"However they are frequently low and in many cases they are so low that, if they can be taken as indices of the value of abilities, then the schools are scarcely justified in giving as much time to this phase of geometry as they now do."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Extremely low school scores suggest progress in geometry is nearly impossible until the fundamental abilities are developed — related
- Teachers' geometry marks usually bear a positive relation to the four fundamental abilities — reports the opposite
- Prior studies show low and variable correlations between mental tests and college grades, averaging from .09 to .44 — a broader claim this one bears on
- Group intelligence scores correlated only modestly with school marks (freshmen: 0.41 Thurstone, 0.56 Brown; junior high: 0.25 Illinois, 0.32 Otis), which the author attributes to marks depending on many non-intelligence factors — related
- Schools vary widely in how effectively they develop the four fundamental abilities — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
low-correlations-undermine-time-spent |
title |
Teachers' marks often correlate so weakly with the four abilities that heavy instructional time on them may be hard to justify in some schools |
description |
Teachers' marks often correlate so weakly with the four abilities that heavy instructional time on them may be hard to justify in some schools |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
1925 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-25 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — minnick-1925 |
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