Notes from Mismeasure of Man (1996), Steven Jay Gould and Ungifted, Intelligence Redefined: The Truth
about Talent, Practice, Creativity, and the Many Paths to Greatness (2013) Scott Barry Kaufman
 Consider the impact of Stereotype threat (1995): Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson (impacts
attention, anxiety, self-consciousness, withdrawal of effort, and over effort) suggests that when students
think (or are told) they are a negative stereotype, they typically perform worse than their peers.
 In the Mismeasure of Man, Steven Jay Gould reveals the history of the Binet Scale, developed to
identify young struggling learners, and how research over time misappropriated it to create the
insensitive IQ test, created to purposefully “track” and/or identify students as gifted, special education,
or twice exceptional (2e). Although the IQ test is only part of the testing that determines how students
are targeted for gifted or special education, beliefs about what the IQ means to teachers varies greatly.
Recent research affirms that when teachers believe that IQ measures translate into student success,
they enact stereotype threat, which suggests that when students think they are a negative stereotype,
they typically perform worse than their peers. Consequently, students across various cultures, who are
identified by gifted or special education labels, come to be viewed and constructed by historically
biased deficit models and are made vulnerable to embodying stereotype threat.
 Scary “skewed” fact: By age 4, the average Black-White gap in the US widens to 5 IQ points and
continues to widen steadily across development by about 2.5 points a year, leading to a 17 point
gap by age 24. #badscience
 Taking Action: So—we are going to use this and return to as a point of interrogation--
By age 4, the average Black-White gap in the US widens to 5 IQ points and continues to
widen steadily across development by about 2.5 points a year, leading to a 17 point gap
by age 24. Let’s unpack this applying what we know about MOM…
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What is illogical here?
What type of bias is present
What implications do these stats put out in the world?
Who is vulnerable to drawing on these stats?
Who is traumatized by these stats?
Who seems to benefit from these stats?
What can you do to push back on these stats? What must be named and
interrogated.
Class Discussion
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Rhetorical: How labels impact a student’s capacity?
In what ways were you grouped or tracked (test scores, AP, special ed, gifted,
twice exceptional, honors, etc)? How did that impact your self-perception?
Reflect on dangers of having deficit theories, subjective/biased research “Scientific
Racism”… (we moved from Craniometry (size of skulls determined intelligence,
e.g., Blacks had smaller skulls) in 19th Century to Intelligent Determinism in the
20th Century- (reduced intelligence to a stable, fixed category)
From Harper’s Weekly
 Broca—19th century craniometry—;Gabineau, cultural racist (influenced Hitler); Bean data
purposefully targeted minorities as less intelligent
 Competing theories in science in 20th century was steeped in “cultural relativism” (culture
determined intelligence) vs. “biological determinism” (one’s biology ranked you with intelligent
determinism and the ranking ordered this way: White, Indian, Black)
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And along came Binet (thank goodness) 
Binet (1857-1911), self-taught, fascinated with the human psyche investigated every
corner of it (consciousness, will, attention, sensation, love, erotic and sexual fetishes
[coined these terms too], pain thresholds, mental fatigue, language, memory…), p. 22
Studied diverse people from ALL walks of life
His work was ignored during his time, as he was quite hermetic but very dedicated to his
work
At end of 19th Century, business and civic leaders across Western Europe and North
America united to promote compulsory Universal Public Education;
the concern was how to educate a diverse population of youth.
1904, Commission was created to determine a way to assess how some students might
need support in school
Binet’s motivation was to help struggling learners and developed testing measurement
Binet and Theodore Simon (a Dr. who had access to a clinical population), went to work
and they defined intelligence: “To judge well, to comprehend well, to reason well, these are
the essential activities of intelligence,” p. 25
Binet saw judgment as: direction, adaptation, and criticism, p. 25
The purpose of the intelligence test was to measure intellectual capacity of a child in order
to determine normality or retardation, p. 26
This conceptualization of intelligence was measured by everyday practical skills, including
the ability to name various parts of the human body, to name objects in a picture, to give
definitions, to repeat a series of digits or a complete sentence, to copy a diamond, to say
the difference between paper and cardboard, or a fly or a butterfly, and to find as many
rhymes as possible in a minute, p. 25 (and for scoring)
Introduced the idea about retesting, noting that intellectual development progresses due
to maturation
Introduced the idea of a child’s mental age-- age at which a child scored
Mental test score is not an absolute measure on intelligence
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Never wielded an IQ, and long after his death, Simon indicated that the association of
numbers to generate an IQ was a betrayal of the work. While alive, Binet spoke out against
those who misappropriated his work. Passed at 54
 And along came Goddard 
o Summary: Stern stepped in and divided mental from chronological age and
developed the IQ  Goddard brings Binet’s work to US,  Terman develops
Stanford-Binet scale, which sets up people’s intelligence, giftedness or lack thereof
in scales (was later used to weed out Blacks and Latinos from passing and serving in
particular roles in the military—influenced standardized testing, also the scores were used
to sterilize prostitutes because they would produce offspring who were simple or feeble
minded, and women whose IQs were low:
 1908, Goddard translated Binet and Simon’s work into English in the U.S. and became
the test’s evangelist
 Believed intelligence was mostly inborn and environment mattered little
 1892, Ellis Island opened borders to immigrants and when it reached its peak in 1907,
Goddard was brought in in 1917 and immigrants had to prove their “worth” as citizens
on the Simon-Binet test by demonstrating mental and physical fitness. As a result,
deportations increased.
 Simultaneous to this, eugenics was emerging to identify in order to weed out the
“feeble-minded,” the undesirables, mentally insane, epileptics, drunkards, criminals,
prostitutes, tramps, and paupers, p. 29. 6 states already had sterilization laws and
many forbade marriage between undesirables. Combined with eugenics, the IQ was a
lethal mode for oppression.
 By 1964, 60,000 people were subjected to compulsory sterilization and the IQ test
was, in part to blame.
And Terman liked Binet’s work 
 Psych Prof at Stanford
 Believed tests should be used to identify the “feebleminded” so they could be
institutionalized
 Noted that acceleration in mental age signified brighter kids than those of their
chronological age
 1916, Revised the Binet-Simon scale and created the Stanford-Binet test. This was
a new test, added 40 new items for 3-14 year olds
 *Terman’s decisions have been enduring- the test became the gold standard, to
which later tests would be compared and his labels influenced the new generation of
IQ classification
 Stanford-Binet now in its 5th edition
 Other factors contribute to academic achievement that are not related to IQ scores:
cognitive abilities, motivation, persistence, self-control, mindset, self-regulation
strategies, classroom practices, design and delivery of C & I, school demographics,
climate, politics and practices, home and community environment, school and district
organization and governance.
Today- controversy over IQ, SLD, 2e, and Gifted labels:
 2004, IDEA stated that schools no longer have to use IQ tests to measure learning
disabilities
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IQ: says nothing about a person’s past or potential
Schools must embrace “neurodiversity”- everyone is wired differently. P. 61
US has focused on excellence and largely ignored SLD (specific learning disability)
until 1950/60. Tide turned and focus turned to gifted and talented and SLD.
This coincided with launch of Satellite Sputnik from Russia and race to the
moon/space. US wanted to be #1 so focus turned to Gifted and Talented.
Consider concept of upgrading (not grading which can be degrading), which is built
on a system of learning from mistakes in order to improve skills
 States differ in how they define giftedness, 24 States have changed their definitions in
past decade; (e.g. varies on these words, creativity, high achievement, creativity,
leadership skills --- what is missing is motivation and performing arts, p. 93)
 Most states use a multiple cutoff or averaging approach on one or two measures for
admittance
 Possible remedy? Only 26 states have specific policies for identifying culturally
diverse students (keep in mind the inherent biases in the tests)
 Strict cutoff are used around the globe on the IQ, but no longer in US
 Most states use multiple cutoffs on two or more different measures
Now, let’s return to situation posed…