Todd Moody wrote:

> As for falling standards, there are paradoxical data.  In terms
> of absolute performance, IQ test scores are today a full standard
> deviation higher than they were 40 or 50 years ago.  The tests
> have had to be renormed for that reason.  The raw score that
> would have gotten you an IQ of 100 in 1950 would get you an 85
> today.  This is a rather substantial improvement.  On the other
> hand, SAT scores have fallen, to where they have had to be
> renormed (especially the verbal scores) in the other direction.


Those tests are quackery, if you ask me. There is no way
people today are a standard deviation smarter than 100 years
ago. Pick up any newspaper aimed at the lower classes 100
years ago, when literacy in the US was 98% for native born
Americans. Compare the vocabulary and level of analysis. It
is higher than high-brow papers today. Something else is
happening, perhaps kids today are just better trained at
test taking.