… Race-based adjustments for neurology – known as “Heaton norms” – were designed in the early 1990s by Dr Robert Heaton to estimate how socioeconomic factors affect someone’s health. They are widely used, but in recent years, scientists in the field have begun to recognize the limitations of the normative comparison groups they have used for years.
The small sample group of Blacks Heaton chose to create his adjustment protocol came entirely from San Diego, a military town where the Black population hardly reflected the diversity of Blacks across the US.
If San Diego is like Honolulu, another Navy town, blacks in San Diego likely did above the national black average: black students score quite high in Hawaii.