A preliminary study of black and white differences on the revised Wechsler intelligence scale for children

Investigated the performance of black and white children and youth on the WISC-R. The sample consisted of 120 Ss who were matched on the basis of their Full Scale WISC-R IQ score. Black males were matched with white males and black females were matched with white females, with 30 in each individual sample. The mean M.A. for the females was 10.6 and 10.0 for the males. Ss were matched in terms of Full Scale IQ. The Sander A statistical method was employed to analyze the data, and comparison of subtest scores between sexes was made by using the t-test for independent data. Evidence from the investigation indicates that the combined black sample performed better on the WISC-R Verbal Scale than did the white sample. Black males obtained significantly higher scores on Information and obtained higher scores on the four remaining Verbal scale subtests than did the white males. No differences were found between the females with regard to subtest scores. These findings did not support previous research that suggests that blacks tend to do more poorly on the Verbal area tests than on Performance tests of the WISC-R.