I have always seen socioeconomic status as the best predictor of a student’s success in education. You do have a point about differing cultural approaches, but after a generation or two, it seems like culture and socioeconomic status would correlate. Success in education improves socioeconomic status, which further improves success in education for the next generation, even if cultural norms drove the parents’ success.
I haven’t seen any compelling evidence for genetic effects; “race” is much more of a social construction than a genetic one. There are some genetic markers and traits that vary more between races than individuals, but overall genetic variation within a specific population is much greater than the variation between races.
There are some genetic markers and traits that vary more between races than individuals, but overall genetic variation within a specific population is much greater than the variation between races.
But it doesn’t follow that race couldn’t possibly be a useful biological classification. Even if the distributions of two groups overlap strongly when any one trait or marker is considered, the groups might still be easily distinguished when you look at the whole configuration space—consider an illustrative diagram.
You do have a point about differing cultural approaches, but after a generation or two, it seems like culture and socioeconomic status would correlate.
Right, but they would need to be identical, not just correlate, for a model that only includes one to be as good as a model that includes both.
I have always seen socioeconomic status as the best predictor of a student’s success in education. You do have a point about differing cultural approaches, but after a generation or two, it seems like culture and socioeconomic status would correlate. Success in education improves socioeconomic status, which further improves success in education for the next generation, even if cultural norms drove the parents’ success.
I haven’t seen any compelling evidence for genetic effects; “race” is much more of a social construction than a genetic one. There are some genetic markers and traits that vary more between races than individuals, but overall genetic variation within a specific population is much greater than the variation between races.
But it doesn’t follow that race couldn’t possibly be a useful biological classification. Even if the distributions of two groups overlap strongly when any one trait or marker is considered, the groups might still be easily distinguished when you look at the whole configuration space—consider an illustrative diagram.
Right, but they would need to be identical, not just correlate, for a model that only includes one to be as good as a model that includes both.