Intelligence Tests as a Basis for Classification and Grading

S

THOMAS DITMARS, EMPORIA, KANSAS.

OMEONE has said, "The stage of prediction is the final stage in the development of any science." The intelligence test appears to be an instrument of high value for prediction in the science of education, since it not only indicates where a pupil can properly be located so that he may apply himself to the best advantage, but it also indicates what may reasonably be expected of him. His probable rate of progress and the ultimate level which he may attain, are supposedly indicated by the intelligence quotient. If further research results in standardization of the intelligence quotient and shows that it remains practically constant, it will become, as time goes on, the most important factor in educational guidance and classification. "Measure each child's native ability and assign him work in proportion to his ability," will then become a fundamental educational principle.

Terman says: "The one criterion of fitness for promotion should be the ability to meet the requirements of the next higher grade, but this criterion is usually lost sight of. The dull child is passed on and put at tasks which are hopelessly beyond his ability, and the child of superior intelligence lacks the mental and moral stimulus that comes from intense application to tasks commensurate with his ability."

Educational leaders have been searching for a means of getting away from present-day plans of promotion and classification, and many believe they have found it in the use of standardized tests and the measurement of intelligence. Many experiments have been made in the use of these tests in classification and grading, and a review of a few of the reports of

these experiments will show that this is a fertile field for investigation.

Miss Olive Gillham, primary supervisor, Alton, Illinois, experimented in classifying the children of the first primary grade on a basis of their mental development rather than chronological age. The Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Test was used, and only the children that presented special problems in regard to classification, the apparently very bright or very slow, were tested. The tests were given in eleven schools, to a total of eighty-eight children. Of the number tested, twenty-four were found to be from four months to one year above the six-year level of mental development and were recommended for rapidly moving classes; twenty-nine measured about the six-year level; two were only four and one-half years old mentally; and four were decidedly sub-normal.

Wherever possible, the children who were found to be from a half-year to a year below the mental age of six years, were transferred to the kindergarten, where they were given training designed to broaden their experience and develop an independence and self-activity which is a necessary foundation for the primary work.

The conclusions drawn by Miss Gillham are that the tests are helpful in school work in the following ways: The results furnish a basis for making an effective classification of the children entering school; by showing the inequalities of mental development they aid the teacher in adapting her instruction to the children's needs; and they help the teacher to realize that success in teaching depends upon the fact that a child must progress according to his ability, from where he is, rather than that all pupils should be held to the same standard of achievement.

"Teaching," a magazine published by the Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, recently gave an account of an investigation of the intelligence of school children and an

experiment in reclassification according to intelligence, made by Miss Elizabeth Byerly in the Garfield School of Garden City, Kansas. When the testing was done it was found that in Grades 5A and 6B were pupils ranging in mental ability from feeble-mindedness to supernormal or genius. In other grados, also, the same condition was found. For example, in Grade 7B was George, who was 11 years old, but the intelligence test showed him to be 17 years and 5 months old mentally, with an I. Q. of 159. In the same grade and class was Lottie, who was 15 years old, but who was only 9 years and 8 months old mentally, with an I. Q. of 56. George and Lottie were expected to do the same amount of work in the same time.

Those pupils who tested supernormal were put together in a special room, where each pupil worked as rapidly as possible. When it was determined after a time of full-capacity work, where each pupil belonged according to his mental age, he was placed in his proper grade. Of a group of sixty-four pupils some were promoted a whole year, some a half-year, while others were not promoted. The promotions during the half-year were the equivalent of forty whole school years. The expense of running the school was $28 for each pupil per year; therefore the promotions of that group amounted to a saving of $1,120. In addition to the money saving, there is a saving of time for the individual. The bright pupil is also saved from falling into habits of idleness and indifference, which are usually the results of holding him in a group where little effort is required for him to gain the highest mark.

In an experiment carried on by Superintendent Theodore Saam of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the use of intelligence tests in classification, 2,360 children in the kindergarten, first, second and third grades of the Council Bluffs schools were tested by means of the Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon Tests. Superintendent Saam's conclusions are: That these tests can

be given successfully by intelligent elementary teachers, and constitute a reliable and accurate record of the child's intellectual capacity; that the intelligence quotient may be safely used in promoting from the kindergarten to the first grade; that there is a high positive correlation between high intelligence quotients and strong school work; and that there is a high positive correlation between low intelligence quotients and failures in school work.

Superintendent S. H. Layton, of Altoona, Pennsylvania, had the 6,774 children of the elementary schools of Altoona tested by the Myer's Mental Measure, and the results compiled and interpreted by the author of the scale. It was found that in every grade of every school there was a great variation in the individual abilities and also in the ages of the members of the grade.

Using the results of the test, Superintendent Layton made the following recommendations: First, that a sufficient number of special opportunity classes be organized to care for all subnormal cases, with a specially trained psychiatrist in charge; second, that special opportunity classes be organized for the super-normal children under a trained supervisor; third, that some flexible plan of parallel courses be worked out to accommodate different sections of normal children; fourth, that these different groupings be based upon intelligent quotients as well as school achievement; fifth, that first grade children, soon after entering school, should be tested and grouped according to their intelligence quotients; sixth, that failure be reduced as much as possible by changing pupils from one section or one grade to another as soon as that need is discovered; and seventh, that as a result of knowing the capacities of the children, their habits of industry be kept up to the standard of their mental capacity. Thus idleness, which has grown out of discouragement on the one hand and the easy accomplishment of tasks on the other, will be eliminated and discipline improved.

A report made by Rudolph Pinter and Helen Noble gives an account of the work done in classification according to mental age in the Northwood School of Columbus, Ohio. In this school, which has an enrollment of about five hundred pupils, grades one to five were tested by the Stanford Revision of the Binet Scale. The results of the tests were used in determining the classification and promotions at the beginning of the second semester.

Because of high mental ages and intelligence quotients, forty-seven pupils were given extra promotions of half a grade, and twenty-two were given extra promotions of a whole grade. Because of low scores in the tests and unsatisfactory work, six pupils were demoted half a grade, one was demoted a whole grade, and forty-one were retained in their former grade. In order to help the pupils cover the extra work involved in their rapid promotion, a special teacher gave all her time to tutoring. Classes were formed for the especially bright children, and all classes were organized as nearly as possible according to the abilities of the pupils. An ungraded class was formed where the pupils with low intelligence quotients were given individual teaching.

In writing of the condition of the school at the close of the second semester, the principal declared that it was much better than before the reclassification was made. The teachers' attitudes were greatly changed for the better. Formerly a certain contempt had been felt for the dull child, but this had given place to an insight and patience never shown before. The shifting according to mental age nearly eliminated the problem of discipline by giving the troublesome child work more suited to his ability. Only two pupils who received extra promotion did not justify their advancement.

In a recent article, Mr. H. M. Zirkle reported that in the Whittier School of Denver, Colorado, an attempt has been made to care for all children according to their individual abilities. Special rooms are provided in which the children