The Obama administration has confirmed one of the most controversial assertions of The Bell Curve. Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray published TBC in 1994. From a summary of TBC, by Brian Beatty et al:
Raising Cognitive Ability – If it were possible to significantly, consistently, and affordably raise intelligence, many of the negative consequences of societal low IQ could be mitigated or removed. However, historical attempts to raise IQ using nutritional programs, additional formal schooling, and government preschool programs (such as Head Start) have proven to have little if any lasting impact on intelligence as measured by IQ tests. The one intervention that has consistently worked to raise intelligence is adoption form a bad family environment into a good one. The authors recommend that children born to single mothers with low cognitive ability be voluntarily given up for adoption.
The liberals have been trying to figuratively lynch Murray ever since. Too late to lynch Herrnstein. TBC’s bottom line, programs like Head Start do not work. Now some sixteen years later, from the Heritage Foundation:
After some prodding, yesterday the Obama administration released the long-overdue first grade evaluation of the federal Head Start program. As expected, the results show that the $7 billion per year program provides little benefit to children – and great expense to taxpayers.
The evaluation, which was mandated by Congress during the 1998 reauthorization of the program, found little impact on student well-being. After collecting data on more than 5,000 three and four-year-old children randomly assigned to either a Head Start or a non Head Start control group, the Department of Health and Human Services found “few sustained benefits”. From the report.
Hat tip and more; Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit:
“The evaluation, which was mandated by Congress during the 1998 reauthorization of the program, found little impact on student well-being. After collecting data on more than 5,000 three and four-year-old children randomly assigned to either a Head Start or a non Head Start control group, the Department of Health and Human Services found ‘few sustained benefits’.”
The only benefit of Head Start to make liberals feel good about themselves by protending to care. End it, don’t mend it.
Tags: Ability, administration, adoption, assertions, beatty, bell curve, benefit, Brian Beatty, Charles Murray, cognitive ability, Congress, control, control gr, control group, department, Evaluation, family environment, formal schooling, glenn reynolds, grade evaluation, group, hat tip, head, head start program, health, heritage foundation, Human, impact, intelligence, iq tests, lynch, Murray, negative consequences, non, Obama, preschool programs, program, reauthorization, Richard Herrnstein, single mothers, sixteen years, Start, student, TBC, well-being
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