Headline, October01, 2013

''' *** IS : ''''ACTING WHITE''' 

REAL ?!!! *** ''''

On Great and Big Ideas, just hear and read  the brilliance of the Economist Roland Fryer:

The racial achievement gap in Education is a vexing reality.

Black children enter kindergarten lagging behind whites. And those differences grow throughout the school years.

The typical black seventeen year old reads at the proficiency level of the typical white thirteen-year old.

A wide variety of possible explanations for the  ''test score''  gap has been put forth including difference in genetics, differences in family structure, and poverty, differences in school quality, racial bias in testing,  or teacher's perceptions, and differences in peer culture, socialization and behavior.

In a paper titled  ''Empirical Analysis of Acting White''  I focused on a highly controversial and well-publicized aspect of black peer culture   -the existence of the social phenomenon called  -''acting white''. I wanted to find out if it was real, and if it was,  wanted to measure its effect.

Acting white describes a set of social interactions in which black kids ridicule other black kids for investing in behavior characteristic of whites  -eg,having an interest in ballet, raising their hand in class, or making good grades.

To measure this, I developed an index of social popularity using detailed information on friendship within schools available in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health : a survey that covers more than ninety thousand junior high and high school students from  175 schools in eighty communities around the country.

The analysis uncovers a rich set of new facts. There are large racial differences in the relationship between popularity and academic achievement. Among whites, higher grades yield higher popularity. For blacks higher achievement is associated with modestly higher popularity until a grade point average of 3.5 when the slope turns negative.

A black student with a 4.0 has, on average, 1.5 fewer same race friends  than a white student with a 4.0. Among Hispanics, there is little change in popularity from a  grade-point average of  1 through  2.5.

After 2.5, the gradient turns sharply negative.  A Hispanic student with a 4.0 grade-point average is the least popular of all Hispanic students and has three fewer friends than a typical white student with a 4.0 grade-point average

!!! The phenomenon is real !!!

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Poland. See Ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:  '' !! Finding The Right Answers !! ''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless