"During the writing of this text, the California State Department of Education (CDE) issued a memorandum, dated September 14, 2022, for all Special Education Local Plan Area Directors in the state (California Department of Education, 2022). The memorandum effectively reversed (in part) the prohibition against administering IQ tests to African-American students for any special education purpose in California schools. The memorandum was issued in response to an earlier 1986 CDE memorandum which expanded Judge Peckham's original 1979 decision in the Larry P. v. Wilson Riles trial. Peckham's decision prohibited the use of IQ tests for placing black students in programs for (what was then called at the time) the Educable Mentally Retarded - on the grounds that (in his determination) IQ tests were culturally biased against African American pupils. The CDE's 1986 memorandum expanded Judge Peckham's decision to prohibit the use of IQ tests for Black students in California for any special education purpose (including gifted identification; see California Association of School Psychologists, 1987; Frisby & Henry, 2015)"--
Thorough overview of the history, viewpoints, and research findings of bias in intelligence testing
Essentials of Evaluating Bias in Intelligence Testing delivers a comprehensive overview of potential biases that can come to light when making use of IQ tests across demographics, detailing where bias can work its way into IQ test selection, standardization, content, administration/scoring, and interpretation and providing key foundational knowledge on what IQ test bias is versus what it is not as well as the history of bias claims in recent decades.
Research findings are included throughout the book to provide key context. Some of the topics discussed in this book include:
- The Larry P. v. Wilson Riles trial decision of 1979, which prohibited the use of IQ tests for placing Black students in special education programs, and its carryover to today
- The heritability of IQ scores, the “nature/nurture” issue, and the role of IQ in the stratification of subpopulation groups in society
- Implicit assumptions within claims of standardization bias, including that all population subgroups must display equal mean scores and that racial/ethnic groups are internally homogeneous
Essentials of Evaluating Bias in Intelligence Testing is an essential read for educators, academics, and administrators seeking to understand the full picture on IQ testing and its validity or lack thereof across different demographics.
