Student test scores also strongly correlate with parent test scores, even more so than inter-generational earnings correlates. In the paper "Do Smart Parents Raise Smart Children?", Anger and Heineck assert that while a 10% increase in parents’ income raises children’s income by 2%, a 10% increase in parents’ test scores raises children’s test scores by 4.5%. Perhaps the real problem is that mediocre parents raise mediocre children, and no amount of test retooling is going to change that fact. In their book Herrnstein and Murray establish a strong correlation between income and intelligence. The chart at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve#Author.27s_follo... is particularly telling.
It stands to reason that if intelligent people are very likely to earn high incomes, and are also very likely to have intelligent children, that intelligent children are likely to have parents with high incomes. Retooling higher education so that it is as fair and ineffective as primary and secondary public education doesn't seem like a particularly good idea.
It stands to reason that if intelligent people are very likely to earn high incomes, and are also very likely to have intelligent children, that intelligent children are likely to have parents with high incomes. Retooling higher education so that it is as fair and ineffective as primary and secondary public education doesn't seem like a particularly good idea.