Testing for Intelligence

School-age children are assessed to measure their intellectual aptitude by measuring their reading, mathematics, writing, science and other subjects, with norms established in each subject for children of a certain age or grade. However, these norms that form the basis of these tests reflect the culture of the people who wrote these tests and are based on items that cover a broad range of content that often represent a mismatch between what is taught locally and what is taught in other states. These intelligence tests are biased against children from other cultures and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition, intelligence tests do not measure creativity or persistence, which are also important indicators of later success in life. Moreover, the child's actual behavior in the classroom and at home is often a better indicator of a child's ability than an abstract intelligence test. Traditional tests of intelligence do not take situational and contextual information into account. Even a mentally challenged child may perform better in their familiar environment than in one of these tests. As a result, most of the time, these children receive inappropriate IQ tests that may even be administered improperly and end up labeling them inappropriately penalizing a child for a creative or unconventional answer. As a person is given a fixed I.Q. score, his/her intelligence is taken to be a fixed, unchanging entity.

It was the French psychologist, Alfred Binet who developed the first IQ test, with the purpose of finding a way to identify children who would experience difficulty in schools and need specialized assistance. His test referred to today as the Binet-Simon Scale provided the basis for the modern IQ tests used today. However, Binet himself stressed the limitations of the test, suggesting that intelligence is far too broad a concept to quantify with a single number. Instead, he insisted that intelligence is influenced by a number of factors, changes over time and can only be compared among children with similar backgrounds (Siegler, 1992). Standard IQ tests measure only part of the brain potential as no tests can measure the potential without also measuring the achievements.

IQ Assessment in India

In India, The Standford-Binet test has been adapted as the Binet-Kamath Test. Most intelligence tests are designed to provide an I.Q. (intelligence quotient) score, which is defined as: I.Q. = Mental Age/Chronological Age x 100. Thus, a ten-year old child who has a mental age of a 14 year-old, will have an I.Q. of 140.

Fortunately, I.Q. tests are used selectively in India, mainly by psychologists who assess children with learning problems. In such situations, an intelligence test may provide valuable information regarding a child's cognitive profile over and above the single I.Q. score. Even though I.Q. testing has not pervaded the Indian educational scene in a big way, the conception of intelligence in school settings is similar to those who developed psychometric assessments. Parents and educators view intelligence within a narrow framework. Thus, even though most children do not undergo formal I.Q. testing, school tests and examinations serve as proxy intelligence tests. Children who score high marks in school are deemed more intelligent than those who do not. 

In India, the term “intelligence “ is used quite narrowly and is measured based on performance on academic tests which , by and large, do not provide an index of a child’s creative or critical reasoning skills. Performance in mathematical and linguistic tasks which form the bulk of academic assessments, are taken as the yardstick of a student’s overall intelligence. Other abilities of the students are overlooked and they are not given sufficient opportunities to explore and excel in other domains. The cultivation of positive self esteem is often neglected in schools as children are judged solely by their scores in scholastic tasks. Children who excel in sports, music, dance or drawing are seldom given any recognition by the system. Also the contribution of environmental factors for the development of intelligence is often overlooked. Culturally “intelligence” is viewed as being more innate; and is not given due recognition to the external factors that are as important as, if not more, than one’s biological endowment.

Children are put under the pressure of these assessments right from their preschool years which reaches its peak in their high school. If the pressure to do well in these assessments in their preschool years is to gain admission into good schools, the parental pressure to get high marks in their high school assessments is to get admissions into a top university for the golden chance of a high-paying job. Getting high scores has also become a symbol of social esteem, as a result the exam season in India has also become unfortunately the suicide season when students take “the extreme step" because they fear the shame of a bad report card. Newspapers carry tragic daily reports of youngsters who have killed themselves as a result of the pressure on these children to perform well on these exams. Even children as young as 11 years fall victim to this. Here is link to the BBC news report of a young child of 11 years who took her life because of the exam stress http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8473515.stm

Here is another link to a newspaper article of a boy who committed suicide due to exam stress. http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/article2880221.ece He was a good student active in sports and social services but the pressure these assessments poses on children like him was too much for him to bear.

It's hoped that young people
will have a brighter future

What is the point of these assessments if it permanently damages children if the scores were assigned more importance than originally intended? We will always need some way of making intelligent decisions about people. But what we need to realize is we're not all the same; we have different skills and abilities. Teachers need to be aware of the fact that traditional tests do not necessarily reveal a student's potential. Therefore, infant and preschool intelligence testing (IT) should be discontinued, state laws requiring IT for admission to remedial programs should be abolished, and that assessment procedures for developmentally delayed children should focus on what a child can do. Early cognition should be redefined as functional, everyday problem-solving skills, and the illusion of precision in psychometric data must be faced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) 

As assessment is an integral component of most schools, educators will benefit from evaluating their own assessment standards and criteria.