Thesis ID: CBB001561376

IQ Testing and Tracking: The History of Scientific Racism in the American Public Schools: 1890--1924 (2008)

unapi

Silverberg, Carol (Author)


University of Nevada, Reno
Lafer, Steven


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Advisor: Lafer, Steven
Physical Details: 126 pp.
Language: English

This study seeks to understand the present through an examination of the past. It argues for the theoretical and practical possibilities of applying a critical educational theory to illuminate the reform movement at the turn of the 20 th century, a movement that created and elevated science as the primary agent for determining the quality and quantity of education an American youth would receive. This study highlights the work of Lewis Madison Terman who held that mental ability could be measured as a single entity and that IQ was inherited, constant and not affected by environmental factors. This position was challenged then and is still a subject for debate. One historian asks what the difference is if IQ is 60% genetic and 40% environment or vise versa. The difference is in public policy, a major theme in this study. Chapter one-three provides the introduction, literature review, and methods including a discussion of the theoretical framework of the dissertation. Chapter four explores the activities of Terman to establish mass testing and tracking in the school system including the influence of political and financial institutions. Chapter five, the conclusion, questions how a system that is so antidemocratic could be legal. Validity was based on triangulation including multiple data- collection methods, multiple sources and consideration of multiple theoretical perspectives.

...More

Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 69/04 (2008). Pub. no. AAT 3311920.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561376/

Similar Citations

Book Melissa N. Stein; (2015)
Measuring Manhood: Race and the Science of Masculinity, 1830-1934 (/isis/citation/CBB729336001/)

Book Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt; (2019)
Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist (/isis/citation/CBB468285066/)

Book Michael E. Staub; (2018)
The Mismeasure of Minds: Debating Race and Intelligence between Brown and The Bell Curve (/isis/citation/CBB502233822/)

Thesis Sarah McDonald Lime; (2021)
Policing Black Bodies across the Atlantic: Examining German and American Anti-Black Racism (/isis/citation/CBB301566760/)

Book Bender, Daniel E.; (2009)
American Abyss: Savagery and Civilization in the Age of Industry (/isis/citation/CBB001031570/)

Book Livio Sansone; (2022)
La Galassia Lombroso (/isis/citation/CBB789501643/)

Book Jon Røyne Kyllingstad; (2014)
Measuring the Master Race: Physical Anthropology in Norway 1890-1945 (/isis/citation/CBB305728899/)

Book Washington, Sylvia Hood; (2005)
Packing Them In: An Archaeology of Environmental Racism in Chicago, 1865--1954. (/isis/citation/CBB000700470/)

Book Eric Herschthal; (2021)
The Science of Abolition: How Slaveholders Became the Enemies of Progress (/isis/citation/CBB289630170/)

Thesis Jazmin Antwynette Evans; (2019)
Scientific Racism's Role in the Social Thought of African Intellectual, Moral, and Physical Inferiority (/isis/citation/CBB578195827/)

Thesis Leahy, Mark Henderson; (2011)
The Mockery of Nature: Blackface Minstrel Humor and Race Science in Nineteenth-Century America (/isis/citation/CBB001567327/)

Article Sánchez Arteaga, Juan Manuel; (2009)
Las ciencias y las razas en Brasil hacia 1900 (/isis/citation/CBB001020970/)

Authors & Contributors
Layne, Priscilla
White, George, Jr.
Cornelius-Diallo, Alexandra
Livio Sansone
Evans, Jazmin Antwynette
Zumwalt, Rosemary Lévy
Concepts
Science and race
Racism
Intelligence tests
African Americans
Anthropology
African Americans and science
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century, late
20th century
21st century
18th century
Places
United States
Germany
Southern states (U.S.)
South America
Norway
Chicago (Illinois, U.S.)
Institutions
Columbia University
United States. Army
American Museum of Natural History, New York
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment