Putting an End to the IQ Debate

                There has been a recent breakthrough in IQ research.  For a long time, the accepted and controversial belief that IQ was fixed and could never change has dominated the fields of neuroscience, child development, assessment, and the education of minorities.  However, a recent study at University College in London found that significant changes in IQ can occur in the adolescence and teenage years[i].

                The University College study tested 33 British adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 years old.  The students were tested and four years later were given the same test.  The results of the study found that some teens improved their IQ scores by as much as 20 points. This was a surprise to the research team because they expected a change of a few points they were not expecting a significant rise in scores among some of the participants.  According to Lead Researcher Cathy Price:

                                “We were very surprised…we had individuals that changed

                                from being on the 50^th percentile with an IQ of 100 all the way

                                up to being in the top 3^rd percentile, with an IQ of 127[ii]

                To confirm their findings, researchers used brain scans to confirm the significant rise in scores was not a mistake.  Comparing brain scans from age 12 and age 16, the researchers were able to see which different parts of the brain changed as a result of the changes in IQ.

                Although the study did not explain the causes for the increase in IQ score, its results have re-affirmed a long dismissed idea that IQ is not fixed.  Proponents of this belief argue that a child’s home and educational environment influences IQ.  They further argue that changes to those environments could lead to increased scores. 

                The University College study provides a compelling argument for reform in public school educational assessment.  The ideology of fixed IQ is woven in the fabric of public education.  This ideology has been used by school psychologist, teachers and administrators to permanently label and direct the educational path of students whose IQ score falls below a certain number.  Once the student has been labeled with a disability and placed on the educational path, the expectation level among school staff is based on a deficit model and a generalized biased that ignores a student’s individuality.  The student becomes viewed in by the lens of their disability.  The findings of the University College study should finally put an end to the IQ debate and begin the discussion on how to reform the educational assessment of students in public education. 

Now that we know IQ can be increased, there needs to be a change in the ideology in public education that reflects a student-centered approach whereby school staff focus educational programming on increasing IQ scores among students’ with low IQ.  By changing the expectation level, and generalized biased among school staff, the lens of their disability becomes a lens of availability that provides greater inclusion, opportunity and access that was once never considered.

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[i] www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/10/20/141511314/iq-isnt-set-in-stone-suggests-stud....

[ii] ibid