red good indicators of general intelligence because of the omissions they make in the testing process. To really gauge a person’s intelligence, it would be necessary to put them through a rigorous set of real-life trials and document their performance. The standardized IQ tests of today are test only a limited quality of a person’s character that can hardly be referred to as intelligence. Standardized test also have no way to compensate for cultural differences. Different cultures have different methods of solving problems, and speediness is not always the best way to tackle a problem. Therefore the time limitations on standardized test are a major drawback. The reasons that IQ tests fail at their task can be separated into two main groups. The first grouping is where the tests assume too much. Examples of this are the assumption that speed is always good, vocabulary is a good indicator of intelligence, and that different test taking environments won’t affect the outcome. The second grouping comes because the tests gauge the wrong items. Examples of this are different culture groups being asked to take the same tests as everyone else, and the fact that the tests ignore so many types of intelligence (like physical, social, etc). These two groupings illustrate where the major flaws of popular IQ tests occur and can be used as tools for judging others. Alternatives to standardized testing are in use in both the United States and other industrialized countries. Alternatives range from student portfolios, to district-wide "proficiencies," to outside review teams that evaluate a school. There is growing evidence that these measures do a better job of showing how well students and schools are performing. IQ tests are not good indicators for a person’s overall intelligence, but their use is extremely helpful in making predictions about how a person will perform in an academic setting. Perhaps the problem...
