This issue of the IRCD Bulletin is devoted to commentaries on an article by Arthur R. Jensen on the nature-nurture controversy in a recent number of "Harvard Educational Review." Contents of the Bulletin are comprised of the following: "Education, Ethnicity, Genetics and Intelligence; Jensenism: Another Excuse for Failure to…

It has been said that the heritability of learning ability or of intelligence is irrelevant to teachability. In support of this statement we see it pointed out that a child or a group of children show some response to training, and this is held up as evidence against the heritability of intelligence or learning ability. Most estimates of the…

This publication continues the descriptions of the cognitive, psychomotor, and socioemotional measures used in all years of the Head Start Planned Variation Evaluation study. Included is a detailed examination of each measure, a discussion of the theory behind it, and a review of the available data on the measure's reliability, validity and other…

This book on the genetic and environmental influences on intelligence is comprised of the following papers: "The Structure of Intelligence in Relation to the Nature-Nurture Controversy," R. B. Cattell; "Theory of Intelligence," L. G. Humphreys; "Using Measured Intelligence Intelligently," P. R. Merrifield; "Intelligence: Definition, Theory, and…

Factor analysis was used to summarize the interrelationships between a large and varied collection of measures. Data for 500 third grade students assigned to either an experimental or a comparison condition were obtained. The data covered scores for the first 28 items of the Student Affective Behavior Checklist, (2) 9 nonmathematics subtests of…

The 1972-1973 issue of "Classroom Practices in Teaching English" focuses on the topic of the evaluation of student performance. The 42 articles and statements describe ways to measure reading, writing, and speaking. The writers are teachers in elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities. About half of them are identified with…

A comparison between standard kindergarten programs and AEL's preschool program was conducted to gain some insight into the desirability of using the laboratory-developed procedures rather than standard classroom procedures for affecting learning in 3-, 4-, and, especially, 5-year-old children. Initial differences in intelligence test scores were…

In a recent study, the mothers of 268 children who were in classes for educable mentally retarded in two public school districts in Southern California were interviewed. The responses of some of these mothers dramatize three issues: (1) biases in the assessment procedures used to label children as mentally retarded; (2) the stigmatization…

The rod and frame performance of 70 children, 5 to 7 years of age, with respect to sex and age differences, reliability, and its relationship to general intelligence, was investigated. The rod and frame test was administered individually and again following a period of 35 to 69 days, at which time the Lorge Thorndike Intelligence Test, form 1A,…

Thirty children, 7.5 to 8.5 years, in two classrooms in a Catholic school trying to implement an informal curriculum were studied. The classrooms were not "exemplary"; The children had lower-middle-class origins. Each child was observed under free-choice conditions for approximately 80-90 minutes over a 3-month period. Two-minute narrative records…

This study sought to determine the convergent and discriminant validity of the PIAT when administered to separate samples of Anglo and Mexican-American children. Thirty-one Mexican-American and 31 Anglo-American children were matched on the basis of sex, age, SES, educational placement, and reason referred for psychological assessment. All…

For Blacks and Hispanics, standardized admission tests and licensing exams are barriers to schools and occupations. Case studies are presented of college admission tests and teacher testing that place women and minorities at a disadvantage. Test biases and misuse must be eliminated and new forms of evaluation must be developed. (VM)

Correlations of home and school environment variables with the educational performance of 392 seven- and ten-year-old students in Northern Ireland were studied in 1970. Home influences of parent behavior, home literacy, and educational ambition were more important predictors of intelligence and reading/math attainment than were school and…

Theories explaining differences in IQ performances between races in terms of (a) genetics and (b) the role of the environment are both criticized. It is argued that the Cultural Distance Approach, which stresses the role of a subculture's distance from the major culture on which IQ questions are based, has the greatest explanatory power. (RDN)

The assessment of hearing impaired children is fraught with a number of problems. These include lack of valid assessment measures, faulty theoretical assumptions, lack of knowledge regarding the functioning of cognitive processes of these children, and biases against these children. This article briefly considers these issues and describes a study…