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Intelligence and public policy
A large body of research indicates that IQ ("intelligence quotient") and similar measures vary between individuals and between certain groups, and that they correlate with socially important outcomes such as educational achievement, employment, crime, poverty and socioeconomic status.
In the United States, certain public policies and laws regarding employment, military service, education and crime incorporate IQ or similar measurements. Internationally, certain public policies, such as improving nutrition and prohibiting neurotoxins, have as one of their goals raising or preventing a decline in intelligence.
In the early 20th century, eugenics legislation was passed in many US states which allowed, or encouraged, sterilization of "feeble-minded" individuals [example needed].
In the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes closed the 8–1 majority opinion upholding the sterilization of Carrie Buck, who along with her mother and daughter was labeled "feeble-minded", with the infamous phrase, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
Eugenics fell out of favor in the middle part of the century and is now widely denounced, though memories of the period continue to influence public policy.
Cognitive test scores predict educational performance better than they predict any other outcome, and cognitive testing is pervasive in academics[citation needed]. Central policy issues concern the proper role of testing in assessing educational quality and in college admission; efforts to characterize and close the educational achievement gap between racial and socioeconomic groups in the US; and the importance of cognitive ability differences in educational affirmative action.
The existence of educational achievement gaps between racial and socioeconomic groups is broadly accepted; the source and stability of the gaps[citation needed] remain areas of active research and debate. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is aimed explicitly at reducing achievement gaps by race. Federally defined formulas in NCLB call for elimination of all achievement disparity by 2014. Regardless of the source of the gap, most educators agree that it must be addressed. They often advocate equitable funding for education.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals interpreted state and federal statutes to require that IQ tests not be used in a manner that was determinative of tracking students into classes designed for the intellectually disabled. Larry P. v. Riles, 793 F.2d 969 (9th Cir. 1984). The court specifically found that the tests involved were designed and standardized based on an all-white population, and had not undergone a legislatively mandated validation process. In addition, the court ruled that predictive validity for a general population is not sufficient, since the rights of an individual student were at issue, and emphasized that had the tests not been treated as controlling but instead used as part of a thorough and individualized assessment by a school psychologist a different result would have been obtained. In September 1982, the judge in the Larry P. case, Federal District Judge Robert F. Peckham, relented in part in response to a lawsuit brought by black parents who wanted their children tested. The parents' attorney, Mark Bredemeier, said his clients viewed the modern special education offered by California schools today as helpful to children with learning disabilities, not a dead-end track, as parents contended in the original 1979 Larry P. case.
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Intelligence and public policy
A large body of research indicates that IQ ("intelligence quotient") and similar measures vary between individuals and between certain groups, and that they correlate with socially important outcomes such as educational achievement, employment, crime, poverty and socioeconomic status.
In the United States, certain public policies and laws regarding employment, military service, education and crime incorporate IQ or similar measurements. Internationally, certain public policies, such as improving nutrition and prohibiting neurotoxins, have as one of their goals raising or preventing a decline in intelligence.
In the early 20th century, eugenics legislation was passed in many US states which allowed, or encouraged, sterilization of "feeble-minded" individuals [example needed].
In the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes closed the 8–1 majority opinion upholding the sterilization of Carrie Buck, who along with her mother and daughter was labeled "feeble-minded", with the infamous phrase, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
Eugenics fell out of favor in the middle part of the century and is now widely denounced, though memories of the period continue to influence public policy.
Cognitive test scores predict educational performance better than they predict any other outcome, and cognitive testing is pervasive in academics[citation needed]. Central policy issues concern the proper role of testing in assessing educational quality and in college admission; efforts to characterize and close the educational achievement gap between racial and socioeconomic groups in the US; and the importance of cognitive ability differences in educational affirmative action.
The existence of educational achievement gaps between racial and socioeconomic groups is broadly accepted; the source and stability of the gaps[citation needed] remain areas of active research and debate. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is aimed explicitly at reducing achievement gaps by race. Federally defined formulas in NCLB call for elimination of all achievement disparity by 2014. Regardless of the source of the gap, most educators agree that it must be addressed. They often advocate equitable funding for education.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals interpreted state and federal statutes to require that IQ tests not be used in a manner that was determinative of tracking students into classes designed for the intellectually disabled. Larry P. v. Riles, 793 F.2d 969 (9th Cir. 1984). The court specifically found that the tests involved were designed and standardized based on an all-white population, and had not undergone a legislatively mandated validation process. In addition, the court ruled that predictive validity for a general population is not sufficient, since the rights of an individual student were at issue, and emphasized that had the tests not been treated as controlling but instead used as part of a thorough and individualized assessment by a school psychologist a different result would have been obtained. In September 1982, the judge in the Larry P. case, Federal District Judge Robert F. Peckham, relented in part in response to a lawsuit brought by black parents who wanted their children tested. The parents' attorney, Mark Bredemeier, said his clients viewed the modern special education offered by California schools today as helpful to children with learning disabilities, not a dead-end track, as parents contended in the original 1979 Larry P. case.