Academic Support Programs need to deal with the fall out from the public debate over The Bell Curve. This essay discusses some of the talking points that are important for students and staff.
Introduction
The Bell Curve is a complex work that may not have meaning. But, like any complex work (e.g. Walden Pond) it serves as a Rorschach Ink Blot. Further, there are some common assumptions and beliefs that are crystallized around what The Bell Curve is supposed to "prove" (rather than around what the book actually has to say).
Deserving Students
Talking Point One
There are students in law school, especially ASP students, who do not "deserve" to be there and who are keeping "qualified" students out.
Response One
That is a gross misapprehension.
I first became aware of the substantial gap between reality and belief when a minority professor wrote in to The Texas Lawyer defend the admission of unqualified minority students to his top tier school.
In his undergraduate school, there are four admission groups:
Academic Diversity (minority) Legacy (Alumni Children) Special (Sports, Fine Arts).
Interestingly enough, on a "qualifications" or "deserving" scale, the Diversity students rank ahead of the Legacy and Special groups. That is, they are better qualified than two out of the four groups admitted to schools.
Going on to graduate school, when a law school is turning down four thousand applicants, the fact that ten applications are accepted on the basis of diversity does not mean that had those diversity slots not been held open that all four thousand (or just the two thousand "qualified") would have been admitted.
Undeserving Faculty
Talking Point Two
Diversity students just are not up to being taught by the faculty at "good" schools.
Response Two
The students are often better qualified than the instructors
An interesting point made in many good MBA programs. It is that the lowest of the admitted students has better admissions criteria than the best of the older faculty. Most faculty at most MBA programs [in 1982] could not have been admitted to the programs where they teach.
Law schools differ from MBA programs in that a vast majority of law professors graduated from a very small number of schools. However, for schools in the top half, the admissions criteria have become so demanding that the quality of students to professors bears comparison.
Minority admissions students should be aware that they compare favorably to the world their (older) professors came from and in many cases have better undergraduate grades, preparation and LSAT scores than their professors had in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
Genetics
Talking Point Three
Diversity students are genetically inferior -- that is a simple fact of life that can't be helped.
Response Point Three
Statistically, that is true of every societal elite -- at one point they were "genetically inferior" and couldn't be helped. Which means that the statistical model is incomplete.
Most people are aware that Jewish students have a substantial (and statistically validated) reputation for superior academic performance. Many universities have had official or unofficial caps on the number of Jewish students admitted.
The same is true of Asian students and has resulted in litigation in California.
What most people do not know is that a generation ago, when IQ and achievement tests were first administered, Jewish and Asian students were at the bottom of the test groups and deemed racially inferior.
Test scores "proved" that Jews and Asians were inferior and hopeless. Now, test scores prove that Jews and Asians are superior and that other groups are hopeless.
If you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you ...
Genetics, Again
Talking Point Four
It is all genetics, diversity students are hopeless.
Response Four
Controlled tests show that isn't so. Diversity students just lack education -- which is what Universities exist to provide. If a University fulfills its purpose, Diversity students will fulfill their purpose. If Diversity students are not filling their purpose, one must look at the University structure.
Two studies were run with college students where the students were assigned to play with very young inner city children for several hours each day.
The young inner city children came from a group with a normal IQ of 70. Those toddlers who played several hours a day with college students had much higher IQs.
Years after the project was over, the control group still had normal 70 IQs. The played with group's normal IQ had dropped off some, to 120, where it remained stable. That is a difference of 50 points of IQ.
While it is never too late to play with college students ... much of success in education is being taught how to learn. Most diversity students have not been taught that in their undergraduate and pre-college education.
Once they gain true learning skills, their acclimation and education reflects continuing and persisting improvements. Those skills are valuable not only in law school, but in the later practice of law.
Such students are also able to teach others how to learn so that their children and co-workers have improved skills and chances.
Also, as a number of historical demographic studies have shown, Black Americans have historically (until the last thirty years, that is, until the recent breakdowns in law enforcement in the inner cities) had lower crime rates, lower divorce rates, and lower illegitimacy (for children after the first) rates than White Americans.
Further, recent demographic surveys have shown that Black Catholic Americans still graduate from college at a higher per capita rate than White Baptist Americans.
No one (other than the founder of Planned Parenthood) ever asserted that White Baptist Americans consist of a deficient genetic group. No one has asserted that Black Catholic Americans are a different racial group than other Black Americans.
To the genetic basis people, I only say, draw your own conclusions, but try not to look silly in front of professionals.
To Black Americans who want to succeed in law school, I only suggest you go someplace where the faculty is smart enough to realize there is no substantial genetic difference.
That is a simple enough pass-fail IQ test ...
Useful Resource
November 5, 1995 Tony Brown's Journal, videotape available from 1-800-524-3553 for $29.95 (show #1828). Features D'Souza, Brown and others in discussion. Notes that in England, blacks have double their per capita representation in professions as do whites, etc.
An amazing discussion.
Copyright 1996, 2002 Stephen R. Marsh All Rights Reserved Return to Central Index for Reform of Legal Education and the Law
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