Massachusetts has the highest average IQ in the US (Fall River: home, private schools)

[id77]

Originally Posted by MtPleasantDream

No surprising though.
Rhode Island is the "dumb" state of New England.

https://katiecouric.com/lifestyle/tr...-states-in-us/

Including SAT scores is an interesting metric given about half the states use ACT instead. It ends up skewing SAT scores in those states upward as only the top students who are gunning for the top national universities are even taking the SAT there.

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by lrfox

I'm a bit surprised by the literacy rates. I knew that they wouldn't be 100%, but figures in the 70s and 80s are lower than where I would have expected them to be. 10-15% of the adult population in the "smartest" states can't read? And closer to 30% in the "least smart" states? That's kind of scary.

Did you see this article?

https://turnto10.com/news/crisis-in-...ence-district#

[jtab4994]

Massachusetts has the highest average IQ in the US

Hmm, MA is only 6.50% black and 7.18% Asian (Wikipedia).

What is MA doing to attract more blacks?

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Northern New England has no cities. Those states don’t have the recent immigrants with ESL that pull down math and reading scores. Average SAT scores are meaningless without qualifying what fraction is actually taking the test. If you’re in a state where the state schools don’t require SAT/ACT tests, only the top of the class that might go to college out of state is going to spend the money and expend the time.

IQ tests have so much bias that they’re not all that meaningful. If you grow up doing intellectual things that raise your score, it doesn’t mean you’re smarter than someone who was parked in front of a television. There were Korean identical twins separated as toddlers who were recently measured with a 16 point I.Q. difference.

A 16 point differential isn't exactly massive. The heritability of IQ has been quantified (to an extent) by psychologists, and although I can't recall the percentage they arrived at offhand (strike one against my supposedly high IQ!), it's fair to say that genetics and environment both play substantial roles. I recently read a quote in the book 'The Confidence Game' by poker-playing psychologist Maria Konnikova that I really like(d): 'Genetics loads the gun; environment pulls the trigger.' She didn't coin that maxim herself, for what it's worth, but rather characterized it as something of a social scientific cliche

ETA that other studies I've seen have found that IQ tends to remain relatively stable across the lifespan of a given individual, barring a traumatic brain injury or what have you. So environmental effects are likely much more important at an early age, given those findings, despite the reality of neuroplasticity

[bostongymjunkie]

Originally Posted by jtab4994

Massachusetts has the highest average IQ in the US

Hmm, MA is only 6.50% black and 7.18% Asian (Wikipedia).

What is MA doing to attract more blacks?

Hmm, sounds like a racially derogatory remark from someone with a less-than-average IQ.


BTW MA is 9.5 percent black and 7.7 Asian.
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fa...A,US/RHI125219

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Huh???


There are over 60 langues spoken in the Portland public schools.

With that spelling, I assume you're speaking one of the other 59+. J/k

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Northern New England has no cities. Those states don’t have the recent immigrants with ESL that pull down math and reading scores. Average SAT scores are meaningless without qualifying what fraction is actually taking the test. If you’re in a state where the state schools don’t require SAT/ACT tests, only the top of the class that might go to college out of state is going to spend the money and expend the time.

IQ tests have so much bias that they’re not all that meaningful. If you grow up doing intellectual things that raise your score, it doesn’t mean you’re smarter than someone who was parked in front of a television. There were Korean identical twins separated as toddlers who were recently measured with a 16 point I.Q. difference.

I always thought IQ was measured in elementary school and they used IQ tests. IQ is pretty much genetically determined. What can seem to increase the IQ would be the ability to score well on tests, being able to read the questions well, having life experiences that are relevant to the questions on the IQ test, etc.

It would be extremely rare to see a 16 point difference but depending upon how they were raised, how well they spoke the language, it could happen, I guess.

MA would have higher IQ kids because there are lots of very intelligent parents living here. Their offspring would inherit their intelligence. If MA has so many high IQ kids, then we should also have high scores in reading and math, but apparently we do not. But then there are also so many other factors--are they measuring the IQs of kids who are in private schools or only the public schools, for instance. I think the information doesn't tell us a lot but it gives us a general hint. Too many factors not taken into consideration.

[msRB311]

I'm not sure that IQ is always genetically determined. I've seen people who have had a lot of kids on very different ends of the spectrum. One might easily get all As and the tony might have a learning disability and no interest in school

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by msRB311

I'm not sure that IQ is always genetically determined. I've seen people who have had a lot of kids on very different ends of the spectrum. One might easily get all As and the tony might have a learning disability and no interest in school

That's because siblings don't necessarily inherit the same genetics unless they are identical twins.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by CaseyB

That's because siblings don't necessarily inherit the same genetics unless they are identical twins.

Sure. There's plenty of smart parents out there who assume they'll sleep have smart kids but it doesn't always work that way. Same goes for athletics.