The Oakland Community School did use test to assess students struggling with reading, but the Oakland Community School did not use standardized testing with the exception of using it to prepare students for transitioning to public schools for middle school. The Oakland Community School did not use IQ testing. During this time period IQ testing was widely used by public schools to lump disabled children, nondisabled Black children, and children with English as a second language into overcrowded and underfunded special education classrooms. 

Oakland Community School's View on Standardized and IQ testing

“Picture Arrangement” IQ challenges tended to feature only white middle-class individuals, which was not as relatable to the experiences of black children. The cultural bias in these IQ test sections could lead to lower scores for black children. 


University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

By 1979, black children represented only 10% of students in the Californian education system, but special education was comprised of 25% black students. The defendants argued that IQ tests were discriminatory and were racially or culturally biased in favor of white students. The judge of this case ruled that IQ tests could no longer be used as the sole identifier for placing black students in special education. 

Larry P. v. Riles Court Case

Larry P. V. Riles, 495 F. supp. 926 (N.D. Cal. 1979). Justia Law. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2023, from https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/495/926/2007878/ 

Larry P. v. Riles, 495 F. Supp. 926 (N.D. Cal. 1979)


The Stanford professor and developer of the Stanford-Binet IQ test, Lewis Terman, said that, “[I]n the near future intelligence tests will bring tens of thousands of these highgrade defective [I.Q.'s in the range of 70 to 80] under the surveillance and protection of society. This will ultimately result in curtailing the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and in the elimination of an enormous amount of crime, pauperism, and industrial inefficiency.”

IQ Tests as a Form of Eugenics, Part 1

Racial Bias in IQ Tests


To create the SAT, College Board commissioned American eugenicist Carl Brigham, who once argued that immigration needed to be strictly monitored to safeguard “American [white] intelligence”. 


Learn Before

Related

Learn After