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A&M professor: Low SAT scores
for students not cause for alarm
)
By Jerry Bolz
Reporter
Although Texas has a low na
tional ranking in scores on the Schol
astic Aptitude Test, this is not cause
for alarm because the scores do not
always accurately reflect what stu
dents learn in high school, says Vic
tor Willson, a professor of educatio
nal psychology at Texas A&M.
SAT scores depend on who takes
the test, Willson said, so unless you
have a random sample of students,
no correlation can be drawn from
courses students have taken, he
added.
In the last few decades, lower
achievers began taking the test be
cause college became Financially
more accessible, Willson said.
This may be a reason that the av
erage SAT score in Texas has been
lower.
state to state.
“I might have faith in it if there
was a random sample,” he said.
A small percent of students take
the test, he said. It’s not a majority in
any state.
Another problem with the SAT is
that it only measures a subset of the
Dr. Dean Corrigan, dean of the
College of Education, agreed.
“There has always been a correla
tion between poverty and low test
scores,” he said.
Willson said that historically, the
SAT was designed to give colleges an
idea of a high school student’s
achievement.
“It is strictly an achievement test
and has nothing to do with intelli-
S ence, as defined by psychologists,”
e said.
Corrigan said the test is being
Joe Bob Briggs
enjoys success
after drive-in days
DALLAS (AP) — With financial
success that includes a new cable
television contract, an autumn com
edy tour and a planned movie, “Na
tional Lampoon’s Topless Bar,”
could an observer conclude that Joe
Bob Briggs has gone establishment?
“As Joe Bob, I will not do any
thing that violates my ethical prin
ciples. But I will do anything for
money,” says author John Bloom,
the creator of the rednecked per
sona that shocked and titillated the
readers of his nationally distributed
drive-in movie reviews.
After six years of the scathingly
sexist reviews as the world’s only
drive-in movie critic. Bloom says his
Joe Bob persona has acquired a life
of its own.
“I am a lot less schizophrenic be
cause I have totally become Joe
Bob,” says Bloom, 35, who recently
auctioned publishing rights to his
third book, tentatively entitled
“White Like Me.”
But the going was rough for a
while.
Three years ago, Bloom resigned
from the Dallas Times Herald under
pressure from the black community
after writing his “We Are the Weird”
parody of the “We Are The World”
song that raised millions of dollars
for the African famine relief effort.
He took several months to re
group, occasionally penning col
umns while pursuing syndicate dis
tribution of his “Joe Bob Goes To
The Drive-In” reviews. Creators
Syndicate now carries the feature.
These days, Bloom says any target
is fair game — except one.
“There are no sacred cows except
Wayne Newton,” he says. “Don’t
even think about making a crack
about him. He’s still the king.”
But everything and everybody
else beware: Joe Bob has called
women bimbos, Hispanics Meskins
and blacks Negroes.
Some newspapers and their read
ers have taken offense, and Bloom
jokes that his column has run in as
many as 50 different versions due to
censorship.
Joe Bob, however, is getting less
of a rise out of readers these days.
Less than 1 percent of his monthly
letters now are hate mail, and the
misanthropist’s writings are even be
ing compared to satirists Jonathan
Swift and Ring Lardner.
“I am starting to worry,” Bloom
says.
“As time goes on, it (the column)
gets censored less and less.
“There are less and less words
considered taboo,” he says. “There
was a paper that used to routinely
censor ‘bimbo.’ It has a kind of mys
tique. But there are no raunchy
four-letter words in the column.”
Bloom says his “White Like Me”
book will have lots of the blood,
brawls and bimbos that have become
part of his one-person genre.
It will be a collection of reprints
from his review column, syndicated
in about 50 newspapers nationwide.
Bloom’s literary agent, Ann Whit
ley, is not disclosing monetary fig
ures for Bloom’s third book’s pub
lishing rights, auctioned on Jan. 26-
27.
She says only that Dell Publishing
Co. Inc. “bought the book at a
higher royalty and higher advance”
than other bidders.
Dell also published two earlier
books, “Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-
In” and “A Guide to Western Civili
zation, or My Story,” an autobiogra
phy, after Bloom settled a lawsuit
against the Times Herald over rights
to Joe Bob’s name.
“Two months ago, Tom Wolfe got
a SPA million at an auction for a
book full of exclamation points,”
Bloom says.
“If 15,000 exclamation points are
worth that, then this dribble is worth
$3.5 million.”
Meanwhile, Bloom says he hap
pily has found that there is life after
newspaper work.
“It was the best thing that ever
happened to me,” Bloom says of his
resignation from the Times Herald.
“I had gotten into that mindset of
thinking that I had to have that
weekly paycheck, the security of a
daily job, and what I found was it is a
lot more fun and a lot more free
dom.
“I’ve done a lot of things I would
never have been able to do at th-
thinking that I had to have that
weekly paycheck, the security of a
daily job, and what I found was it is a
lot more fun and a lot more free
dom.
“I’ve done a lot of things I would
never have been able to do at the
newspaper, including stand-up com
edy and putting out at least one book
a year. It was a blessing in disguise.”
Another tour of stand-up routines
was planned this year, after Bloom
received standing ovations in Dallas,
Austin, Phoenix, San Francisco and
other cities.
On The Movie Channel, Bloom is
a permanent host with his “Drive-In
Theater” on Friday nights.
Bloom even plans to write a more
serious, general-interest column un
der his own byline.
“I have a way of thinking about
things that goes against the grain of
pop culture,” he says. “It will be cur
mudgeonly. In that sense, I’ve never
been an intellectual. I would always
rather be at a (Dallas) Mavericks
game.”
Joe Bob’s favorite movie is still
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” al
though he’s not too happy that a
scene in the sequel, based on his sec
ond book, was cut 11 days before the
film was released.
“I still have not become used to
the entertainment business totally,”
Bloom says. “It is crazy. I used to
work a whole half-year to make what
you make on TV in two days.
“The idea that I have been in the
wrong business all these years is
slowly dawning on me,” he says. “I
am not going to be able to handle
this. Basically, everyone in show
business has too much money. The
people you never heard of all have
too much money.”
--^
Aggieland photographers
Information session Thursday, March 10
7 p.m. in room 014 Reed McDonald
used by many as a political instru
ment. Willson agreed with this.
“Politicians are saying we need
better education or new curriculum
because of low test scores,” he said.
“There’s a political desire to simplify
everything to one number, but edu
cation is much too complex. People
and legislators from this campus on
up have far too much faith in single
test scores.”
C
w
Willson compared our society’s
thinking to that of China.
“The Chinese Empire spent 3,000
years testing civil servants and teach
ers and systematically excluded their
creative people from society,” he
said.
Unfortunately, Willson said, the
United States will probably see more
tests.
“We have a test-oriented society
that thinks that one more test scon
will solve complex problems," I*
said.
Millions of dollars are spent toi
velop a single version of the SA
Willson said. It costs over $100
write a single qustion and then ram;
more to publish, he said. Corripi
agreed.
“The money we’re spending i
crazy,” Corrigan said. “We mal;
charts and never get back to help
students,” he said.
He said the test should notk
given unless students are toldwk;
they did well on, and helpedI
what they haven’t learned.
The National Assessment of Ed,
cational Progress gives a test tit
Willson said comes closer at bei; |
random and matching student’sci
riculum. He added, however,
no test is designed to give g
numbers.
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Linguist keeps up
with twisty turns
in modern English
By Marcena Fadal
Reporter
English is a constantly chang
ing language, says Dr. Garland
Cannon, a professor of English
and linguistics who has published
more than 100 books and articles
on linguistics.
“Linguistics is the systematic
comparitive study of languages,”
Cannon said. “It is a very in
volved definition, but that’s the
basis of it.”
Cannon has done a linguistic
study of the English language, he
said.
“I have analyzed almost 14,000
words and I’m able to tell you ex
actly how English is changing to
day,” Cannon said. “We are quite
sure that English, for example, is
adding tens of thousands of new
words every year and the great
bulk of it will mercifully die.”
The data for this study comes
from new-word dictionaries such
as the Merriam-Webster and
Clarence Barnhart dictionaries.
“I would not have the time to
actually go out and listen to peo
ple talk,” Cannon said. “They
(Webster and Barnhart) have
done that and obviously the value
of the conclusions depends upon
the value of the collections. If the
collections are shabbily or inaccu
rately done, then obviously all of
my conclusions are skewed.”
Cannon, who received his
bachelor’s and doctorate of En
glish from the University of
Texas and his master’s from Stan
ford University, recently com
pleted a new book, “Historical
Change and English Word-For
mation,” which compares the
change of language, he said.
“My new book tries to put in
perspective the way language has
changed over 1,400 years as op
posed to the way it is changing
now,” Cannon said. “Also, say 20
years from now, my book will be
taken and the new data will be set
in and that will be compared so
we can see how language has
changed between 1980 and the
year 2000.”
The continuing changes of En
glish have made it diflicult lot
Foreigners to learn the language
he said.
“It would create very large
problems,” Cannon said. “Alotof
these words may be offensive to
people’s sensibilities, and I don’t
mean vulgar or obscene. The)
strikingly break the pattern. And
so somebody learning English,or
any foreign language, is going to
have a great deal of problems
with some of these words.”
Some words that break the pat
tern of correct English are “cra
zy” and “given.” Both words are
adjectives but also are used as
nouns.
“These are functional shifts,"
Cannon said. “This is where you
take a word that belongs to one
part of speech and you move it
into another part.”
Cannon said another func
tional shift occurs with “0.D
This abbreviation for overdose is
now used as a verb, he said.
Other abbreviations that can be
confusing — acronyms — involve
the shortening of words by using
the initial letter of each word.
Some examples are SALT |f
(Strategic Arms Limitation!
Treaty), REM (Rapid Eye?
Movement) and TESL (Teaching;
English as a Second Language),
Cannon said.
By studying the new words and
the new ways older words are
used, he said, researchers can un
derstand how English has!
changed.
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“For the first time in the his
tory of scholarly language we
have large collections of new
words,” Cannon said. “If you
then analyze all of these words,
we know the precise process by
which language is changing.”
HISD racks up $6000
for 976 phone calls
Che
brir
toF
HOUSTON (AP) — Public school
employees racked up more than
$6,000 worth of telephone calls to
hear sexually oriented stories, for
tune telling and other pretaped mes
sages available on 976 numbers, the
Houston Chronicle reported Sun
day.
Houston Independent School Dis
trict spokesman Larry Yawn said last
week that HISD has had an average
of $500 to $700 in 976 charges per
month for about a year.
Yawn said it is impossible to deter
mine who placed the calls because of
the large number of employees,!
cations and telephone lines involve
The district has more than 2$
telephone lines at 232 schools and-
several administrative office buit
mgs.
District officials moved last wet
to participate in a free program ■
Southwestern Bell Telephone Co
have 976 numbers blocked fronii
telephone lines.
He said officials began monito|
ing the 976 calls made at the scho<
and the central administration buik!
ing about a year ago.
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