Racial and ethnic group differences in intelligence in the United States: Multicultural perspectives

This chapter addresses multicultural perspectives of intelligence in the United States. Topics include fairness in testing; environment, social location, and cultural context; measures of intelligence; and outcome implications in testing ethnocultural populations. Definitions of intelligence from a cultural perspective are highlighted. Contextual factors include: poverty, home environment, education, fluency in English, and acculturation. Testing constructs such as fairness in testing, test bias, cultural loading, and various forms of testing equivalence are discussed. Alternative assessment practices focus on nonverbal intelligence tests; dynamic assessment procedures; performance-based, authentic, and curriculum-based assessment; response to intervention, think aloud protocols, cross-battery assessment; and a multidimensional bilingual assessment model. Usage of mainstream intelligence tests is discussed in relation to Black, Asian, American Indian/Native American, and Hispanic and Latino/a communities. The numerous challenges, controversies, and complexities of interpreting test scores in cultural contexts are discussed as intelligence tests are transported, renormed, and restandardized globally.