IQ

Whatever the merits of these criticisms, and they will be considered in more detail shortly, there is little doubt that the attack on the classical tradition of the 1920s and 1930s had a significant effect on the use of IQ tests and other tests of cognitive ability or aptitude. During the late 1960s and 1970s, IQ tests were phased out or deemphasized in many schools. In 1972 the National Educational Association called for a moratorium on standardized intelligence testing (jensen 1980: 13). Federal judges during the 1970s ruled that even individually administered IQ tests were not to be used in the placement of children in classes for the educationally retarded if the results of that testing were that disproportionate numbers of minorities were placed in those classes. Aptitude tests, whether for jobs or college entry, also fell into some disrepute. On their own initiative, many universities and colleges employed different cut-off scores for students from different ethnic backgrounds, implicitly accepting the criticism that SAT scores systematically understated the real abilities of minority students. Federal judges ruled that tests of aptitude for particular jobs were unconstitutional unless these tests had a manifest relationship to the skills required for the job in question (Griggs versus Duke Power, 1971). Tests measuring specific skills were allowed; tests measuring general aptitudes, despite the fact that many psychologists believed that they were better predictors of job performance, were highly suspect if they produced different mean scores for different groups. Public attitudes toward ability testing and the scientific status of IQ tests had changed dramatically by the mid-1970s.