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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 10, 1981)
r >Wi THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1981 Page i State DIETING? Texas teacher supply decreasing Even though we do not prescribe diets, we make it possible for many to enjoy a United Press International The fact that Texas has a grow ing shortage of public school teachers is bad enough, but many schools — especially in the south ern part of the state — are filling the gap with teachers who do not belong in a classroom, a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas said. Dr. Clifton Harris, director of the Office of Teacher Education at UT-D, found in a recent study that some teachers in many Texas school districts are not certified and that others, especially in south Texas and the Hio Grande Valley, have no more than 2 1 /2 years of college. Harris said these findings, together with the fact that some districts are curtailing course offerings, “seems a clear indica tion of a shortage of some signifi cance.” And Harris believes that Texas’ short supply of qualified teachers will only get shorter in the future. In his study, Harris surveyed deans, directors and heads ot the state’s approved teacher training programs. He said varying majori ties of them agree there are shor tages of teachers for specific in- Religious background explains higher IQ United Press International > HOUSTON — A University of Houston researcher believes she’s disproven the theory that heredity explains the higher IQ scores for whites over blacks, and instead has found the scores are lower among children of mothers with strict religious beliefs. Dr. Zena Blau said the religious quotion was an unexpected conclu sion from her analysis of the intelligence test scores of black and white children. In writing her new book “Black Children, White Children: Compe tence, Socialization and Social Structure,” Dr. Blau studied the IQ scores of more than 1,000 fifth and sixth graders — 523 white and 549 black — in the Chicago area. She also studied sociological data sup plied by their mothers. She said one aspect of her findings contradict a 1969 study by Dr. Arthur R. Jensen, the University of California educational psycholog ist, who argued lower IQ scores by blacks were due primarily to heredity. Dr. Blau argues environment accounts for the bulk of the 15-point average difference between blacks and whites. “Jensen only took into account one environmental variable and a crude one at that. ” she said. “He began with the 15-point average difference between the test scores of blacks and whites, allowed three points for the father’s occupational status and concluded that heredit ary differences accounted for the remaining 12-point gap.” She said other sociological variables like the parents’ educational attainments, socioeconomic and demographic origins, religion and child rearing methods affect a child's intellectual development. And she said she found the mother’s religious beliefs play a big part. “In a society that is changing so rapidly, where self-control and self-direction are important to an individual’s performance, the impact of the high control religious institutions is adversive to a child’s intel lectual development,” she said. She said the highest average IQ scores she found were among white children and black children whose mothers were from a non- denominational or non-religious background. Such whites averaged an IQ of 110 while blacks scored an average 109. The lowest IQ scores were found among black and white children with Catholic mothers. Blacks with Catholic mothers scored 101, whites with Catholic mothers 103. Dr. Blau said children with Baptist mothers also scored lower while children with mdthers from such religious backgrounds as Episcopa lian and Presbyterian scored higher. Dr. Blau said the mother’s religious beliefs were linked to other sociological factors that could influence intelligence test scores: for example, the more physical punishment and maternal authoritarian ism the lower the child’s IQ score. “I don’t think any respectable scientist can ignore these (other) variables,” she said. She said comparison of raw test scores she worked with produced an average 10-point difference between blacks and whites. However, adjustment for all variables produced an average score for black boys a “trivial” 2.9 points below that for white boys and an average score for black girls 2.7 points below white girls. She said the differences were less than the 3.3-point lead white fourth-and fifth-grade girls have over white boys of the same age. PHOTO & CAMERA, INC. Our 1st Annual Blues ” Sale! featuring discounts on: • Darkroom Accessories (Wide Variety On Sale) • Camera Bags • All Lens Filters Sat., June 13 Only! In-Store Factory Representative demonstrating ZEISS-CONTAX YASHICA Premier Quality Photo Equipment All Zeiss-Contax-Yashica Equipment Sale Priced!! 1603 S. Texas Ave. — Culpepper Plaza Next To Rosewood Junction ‘Professional Assistance And Service With Every Sale" structional areas and that Texas faces a severe, imminent teacher shortage in all fields of instruction. “The most likely result of the decline,” he said, “will be further employment of unqualified teachers.” Harris traced the beginning of Texas’ teacher shortage back to the 1973-74 school year. He said two trends which began back then to produce the shortage: a steep rise in the state’s birth rate and a steady decline in teacher pros pects. A further analysis, using birth data for each school year since 1966, led to the grim prediction that the need for new teachers in the lower grades will dramatically increase over the next five years. The shortage may be so severe, he said, that some secondary school teachers may need to be retrained to meet the demand. An acute need for more first grade teachers will show up this fall, he said, followed by a need for more kindergarten and second grade teachers in 1982-83 and 1984-85. A further need for first and third grade teachers will arise in 1983-84 and again in 1985-86. In fact, Harris said Texas’s birth boom, already expanding lower grade enrollments in urban areas, is likely to rise because the state continues to attract new people, many of them in their child- producing years. At the same time, the annual output of new teachers from Texas’ 63 approved teacher train ing institutions is down from a peak of 16,129 in 1973 to 12,923 in 1980. That is an average loss of 534 potential teachers a year. Harris said current estimates indicate that decline will con- I I tinue, due to three factors: low salaries, erroneous publicity ab out an oversupply of teachers and a loss of public respect for the pro fession. To make the profession more attractive, Harris recommended a substantial raise in the “ridicu lously low” entry salaries for teachers and countering publicity about the oversupply. He also said the state’s leadership should help restore the. image of the teaching profession. Take the $25.00 Challenge at Bud Ward's! y* You just can't lose! So Sez Fiddlin' Faron nutritious meal while they follow their doctors orders. You will be delighted with the wide selection of low calorie, sugar free and fat free foods in the Souper Salad Area, Sbisa Dining Center Basement. OPEN Monday through Friday 10:45 AM-1:45 PM QUALITY FIRST The Corps of Cadets gets its news from the Batt. i » i The gentle touch of a strong hand can make all the difference. It takes the gentle touch of a strong hand to shape a really good bank. And that doesn’t just happen. Not in a week. Not in a year. It takes muscle. And sweat. And hard work. Day after day after day. 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