A couple of weeks ago, the National Academy of Sciences published a study that examined IQ scores from 1962 to 1995 of conscripted military individuals, narrowing the focus to those with brothers in order to consider any possible connection of genetics. The conclusions supported findings by some previous studies, that Iowa educators continue to ignore because teacher training programs would have to change the false education theories they continue to use.
High IQ individuals do not necessarily produce high IQ offspring, and low IQ individuals do not necessarily produce low IQ offspring; genetics is not a factor. Similar to the findings of the 2004 Manhattan Institute study of teachability, low socioeconomic individuals have the same capacity to learn as moderate and high socioeconomic individuals. Iowa’s ESSA plan of further lowering standards for these individuals rightly received an F grade because it presumed no ability to remediate the failures the system itself created.
During the industrial revolution, when education (based on concepts) was expanding in availability to increased numbers of individuals, IQs rose.After, about 1975, they began trending downward, and continue this downward trend today. Researchers blame the results on both health and education.In the late 1950s, education began changing from concepts to memorization, taking time to work through all the states, and those students in school when the change occurred in their school were affected by the grade they were in at the time. The younger students were exposed to more memorization than the older students who had already had concepts up to the time of the change. The results are evident in the international PISA exams, with U.S. students scoring in the bottom third of the countries (who did not stop using concepts) taking the exams.
Government intervention, initially with No Child Left behind, followed by Every Student Succeeds, intended education to get back on track with concepts and stop using false education theories that blame demographic groups for low achievement in lieu of properly assessing the effects of a system of memorization versus concepts that develop more in-depth thinking and problem-solving skills.
To date, Iowa’s State Board of Education and Department of Education continue to certify teacher training programs still using wrong theories and methods, and writing curriculum they have no competence to write. Iowa 2017 NAEP fourth-grade reading scores have fallen into the bottom half of the country. Who will hold our education system accountable?
Sue Atkinson
Baxter