Social and legal consequences of I.Q. tests as classification instruments: Some warnings from our past

Social science instruments are not neutral. The concepts they are imbedded in, the aspects of reality they enable us to see, all have social and political consequences. That school psychologists need to pay close attention to the sociopolitical implications of their assessment instruments is illustrated through the woeful history of the use and misuse of the concept of intelligence in the United States during the first third of this century.