Since the Coleman Commission published its findings some 40 years ago most discussions about the achievement gap between "haves" and "have nots" has focused on reform of the school environment. A question has rarely been posed in a practical way about the role of other elements of society, chiefly the family. This is the case even though Coleman's original findings demonstrated that differences in the home environment were almost certainly far more important to academic achievement than the resource differences between schools. With Maximizing Intelligence David Armor, who himself served on the Coleman Commission, has inaugurated a sea-change in the debate about educational achievement, and the basic "playing field" of a liberal society. His thesis, that the so-called "race gap" can be all-but eliminated by focusing attention and resources on very early childhood (long before children enter preschool), promises to enliven a debate that has become almost moribund. His contribution projects issues of education into a new dimension transcending and superceding the conventional ideological and special interest polarizations that have come to characterize this social issue.
In the first few pages the book sets the conditions and parameters of this new debate: "Today's focus on government programs for improving school achievement of at-risk children--remedial programs in schools, preschool training like Head Start, and special child care programs--may have convinced many parents that the best opportunity for improving their child's academic achievements is in school rather than at home. Parents with at-risk children who fail to understand the critical importance of the early childhood environment and early parenting behaviors, and who wait for school programs to help their children, are probably increasing the likelihood that their children will experience academic failure."
Armor then presents and supports a theory about early childhood development involving a number of "risk factors" that include mother's IQ, various socio-economic and family measures, birth weight, and most importantly cognitive stimulation (rarely considered). He then presents a powerful empirical argument, the most convincing demonstration of which is that the achievement gap between Black, White and Hispanic children measured in the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) for school-age children, very closely matches the pattern representing the IQ gap measured by the Youth Study for five-year-olds. Clearly, whatever the explaination for the pattern as the gap narrows and widens from the 1970s through the 1990s, it could not have been something uniquely happening within the schools themselves. This finding opens the door not only to an alternative explanation of the gap, but to a productive approach aimed at narrowing and eliminating it, while simultaneously "raising all boats."
Subsequent chapters build on various empirical studies, many conducted by Armor and his associates, to flesh out an integrated theory of intelligence as well as an approach to the most uneven of all playing fields: the cognitive abilities with which we all approach the opportunities and challenges of life, no matter what our background or legacy. His theory involves four primary propositions about the malleability of intelligence, the timing of change, the "risk factors" alluded to earlier, and the family as the agent of change. Finally, Armor uses both the constructed theory of intelligence and evidence from various intervention programs already implemented and evaluated (such as Early Head Start) to make recommendations that inform both families and policy makers about optimal strategies.
Even though the subject matter of the book is complex and may be unfamiliar at times, this is, perhaps, the most approachable of David Armor's published works in the field. Furthermore his explanations of methodological and starkly empirical topics are straightforward and intuitive, even to readers not familiar with the literature. However, this is not light reading. The reader should expect to do some serious work to reap the rewards this book has to offer.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Maximizing Intelligence. It could become a major turning point in the often heated debate on education and equality of opportunity in the US.
Posted by Demosophist at January 26, 2004 10:28 AM | TrackBackIt's a savage pity that more attention isn't paid to the really basic fundamentals, like spending useful time with children and actually interacting with them.
Posted by: Anticipatory Retaliation at January 30, 2004 10:00 AM