Exceptional mismatches between test rank and school grade are explicable by social circumstances¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1915 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Eleven high-scoring fifth-graders came from disrupted homes with dead or absent fathers, wage-earning mothers, frequent school changes, and little interest in education, while seventeen low-scoring eighth-graders came from intact homes with fathers as wage earners and education-minded mothers. → Woolley 1915

Evidence¶

Woolley 1915¶

Woolley, Helen Thompson. (1915). A new scale of mental and physical measurements for adolescents, and some of its uses. The Journal of Educational Psychology, 6(9), 521-550. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0075644

q2 · i? · qualitative · r1

Case-file study of the exceptional children from the testing series: records of physical and educational history and home conditions were examined for eleven superior fifth-graders and seventeen inferior eighth-graders. The authors report their hypothesis about social causation of the mismatches was 'absolutely verified'.

"There were eleven of the very superior fifth grade children—children who ranked 70 or above either at fourteen, 01 at fifteen, or both years; and there were seventeen of the very inferior eighth grade chil- dren, children who ranked 50 or below either at fourteen or at fifteen or at both ages."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Composite mental test rank shows a large positive correlation with school grade, physical rank only a small one — related
• Movement in and out of social and economic exposure (mobility) across childhood has implications for educational and cognitive outcomes, with upward and downward changes differing in benefit and risk — a broader claim this one bears on
• Mead argued that treating the mother tongue as inferior impedes movement between home and school language structures — related