Friday, April 21, 2017
Intelligence Quotient (I.Q)
We are all infatuated with intelligence, which is why the Intelligence Quotient (I.Q) is hugely popular. However, what most people do not know is that the I.Q was invented and made famous by the Nazis. Fascist Germany used the test as a way to ‘ethnically cleanse’ less desirable out from their society by sterilizing those with physical and mental disabilities and even low I.Q scores (Farrimond, 2011). The United States also took on this belief in early 1900 with thirty states passing laws forcing thousands of low I.Q or what they called “low grade” people to be sterilized. I bring up I.Q because today it often used to assess students “intelligence,” and need for additional support or special education. Considering the I.Q test was created by a Nazi and is used to evaluate the knowledge of scholars of multiple ethnicities is it solely coincidence Black and Hispanic males’ makes up close to 80 percent of youth in special education programs according to the Department of Education? What are your thoughts and beliefs on I.Q and its relationship with special education?
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Interesting....I was not aware of the history of the test. However, when we are assessing for special education services, we test for so much more than intellectual ability. Within our battery of testing, we include- sensory processing, visual motor integration, social/behavioral, adaptive, communication, academic, and we also differentiate between psychological processing and intellectual ability. When an eligibility team assesses all of these scores, we then look at areas of eligibility to consider. I understand, however, that this process may quite possibly not be as comprehensive in other schools or counties, which is disheartening. With that said, I do think it is crucial for teachers, administrators and county officials to not only look at test scores because there is so much more to a child than numbers from a test. Often it is easy to default to numbers because they provide a common ground with which everyone can be assessed but as you point out, some of the testing's validity could be called to question. This is why, when a while back, the criteria for the special education eligibility of a learning disability was changed for the better in my opinion. When I began teaching, the criteria for a child to meet eligibility in the area of SLD was an average or above average IQ with a 20 point discrepancy in one of the subtests, demonstrating a distinct area of strength and an area of weakness. Now, this criteria has shifted and no longer is there a requirement of an average to above average IQ, nor do they need to have a 20 point discrepancy. When this changed, we did see an influx of children qualifying for special education services within the SLD category but this may have been for the better because the stringent guidelines prior pushed children who were clearly struggling to either an MID program or they received no services and many continued on the perpetual cycle of academic failure. With all of that said, there is no doubt that Black and Hispanic males are disproportionally represented in special education, and I agree, further assessment, research and solutions need to occur.
ReplyDeleteThis was very interesting Jamal. The roots of IQ testing are truly disturbing. I agree that it is strange that we still use this ancient system as a barometer for educational potential. In my opinion, it also fails to adequately take into account the aptitudes or testing styles of different types of learners. One of the strangest things I have seen recently was an IQ score that I felt hurt the child because it was too high. While everyone who supported the child felt that they would benefit from learning life skills in a self-contained high school class, they couldn't be moved into it because their IQ was too high. While the student and parents' goals were just to work towards independence, they were mandated to remain focused on purely academic goals in a setting that I didn't consider to be beneficial to the child at all.
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