Attitudes of American Secondary School Students Toward the Use of Intelligence Tests

Abstract

A national sample of about 5,000 public, 2,600 parochial, and 1,200 private secondary school students were asked whether they thought it fair to use intelligence tests to help make decisions in educational, occupational, and other areas. Results indicated that: (1) anti‐test sentiment is neither ubiquitous nor consistent. A considerable number of respondents were in favor of testing, the proportion of respondents favoring tests varied greatly as a function of test context, and some favored tests in one context but disapproved of them in another. (2) Social background and individual difference variables interacted with test contexts. Given two test contexts, these variables may have different effects for each in determining the respondent's approval or disapproval of test usage.