The measuring of human intelligence with IQ tests happens all around us — in the workplace, the criminal justice system, even the NFL. And they’re massive in schools. More than a million US children are IQ tested every year.
However, in California, it’s off-limits to administer an IQ test to a child if he or she is Black. Why? Because of a little-known case called Larry P v Riles that in the 1970s … put the IQ test itself on trial.
An interview with Brandon Gamble, Ed.D., Dean of Student Success, is included in the Radiolab podcast “G: The Miseducation of Larry P.” With the help of reporter Lee Romney, RadioLab producers Rachael Cusick and Pat Walters investigate how that lawsuit came to be, where IQ tests came from, and what happened to one little boy who got caught in the crossfire.
