A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test

by Pepper Stetler, Elizabeth Gassman (Editor)

In a quest to advocate for her daughter, Pepper Stetler uncovers the dark history of the IQ that leads her to question what exactly we are measuring when we measure intelligence. When Pepper Stetler was told that her daughter, Louisa, who has Down Syndrome, would be regularly required to take IQ tests to secure support in school, she asked a simple why? In questioning the authority and relevance of the test, Stetler sets herself on a winding, often dark, investigation into how the IQ test came to be the irrefutable standard for measuring intelligence. The unsettling history causes Stetler to wonder what influence this test will have over her daughter’s future, and, if its genesis is so mired in eugenics, whether Louisa should be taking it at all.

So what are we measuring when we try to measure “intelligence”? As she uncovers the history of IQ, exposing its roots in eugenics, racism, xenophobia, and ableism, Stetler realizes that the desire to quantify intelligence is closely tied to a desire to segregate society. She traces its legacy from inception to the present day, where schools and society have adopted the IQ as shorthand for an individual’s aptitude—in essence, their worth. Boldly, Stetler questions how this rigid definition of intelligence has influenced who society holds up as successful and, perhaps more importantly, what it is that we miss when we judge someone solely on their measured intelligence. 

Blending a mother’s love and dedication to her daughter with incisive historical and cultural analysis, A MEASURE OF INTELLIGENCE investigates the origins and influence of the IQ test on our modern education system, questions how we define and judge intelligence, challenges its flawed foundation, and argues for a fundamental reevaluation of how we understand an individual’s perceived potential.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Disability, Education

315 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 20, 2024

About the author

Pepper Stetler is a professor of art history and writes extensively on issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The Progressive, the Ploughshares blog and Gulf Coast.

Stetler also researches and writes about the art and photography of early twentieth-century Europe and the United States. In 2022, she was awarded an Art Writer’s Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation. She has written catalog essays for exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2022, she curated Craft and Camera: The Art of Nancy Ford Cones, the first museum scale retrospective of the Cincinnati-based photographer.

Stetler grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University and her MA and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. She lives in Oxford, Ohio with her husband and her daughter, Louisa, whose general awesomeness inspired her to write A Measure of Intelligence.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

As other reviews have pointed out, this was much more non-fiction than memoir - to the book's benefit. I don't think I would have enjoyed this had it truly been a memoir.

It's been a while since I've learned this much from a single book. The light Pepper Stetler sheds on IQ testing, education of those with different learning abilities and the countless dualities the parents of said kids are subject to.

My hope is that Pepper's care and effort do not go unnoticed, and change is enacted thanks to the light she's shed on the problem. But even if that doesn't happen on a large scale, each reader will take something away from this book. She's certainly lit enough of a fire under me. Unless it's to discredit them, I wouldn't want to be the next person to bring up IQ scores around me.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Pepper Stetler and publisher for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!}

Side Note: If you enjoyed this, I think you'd also enjoy May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics and Studies Exploit Our Biases - And What We Can Do About It

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pepper Stetler, the author of A Measure of Intelligence – One Mother’s Reckoning with the IQ Test is the mother and avid advocate of Louisa, a bright button of a girl. Also on the list of ways to identify Louisa is to note that she has Down Syndrome. In this memoir, Pepper keeps that in mind, but it is not the first way she thinks about and supports Louisa.

When doctors, teachers and care givers work with Louisa and report back to Pepper, they would frequently mention the “IQ Test” and the need to take it once, take it again, and again and again. Eventually this made a hackle rise, in fact, a bouquet of hackles. Why and how and what for, especially the continual need for it? So begins the author’s deep dive into what is (and is not) the results, purpose and benefit (or not) of the IQ Test administered throughout this world. Its use and validity, and what it really says about the person being tested (to the persons giving the test).

Her conclusions are interesting and compelling – it is not exactly intelligence that is being measured. Having been created by and for power-wielders anxiously engaged in controlling populations having a way to measure compliance, biddability, and a willingness to draw within the lines was found to be a very handy measuring stick.

I am not at all surprised that this mighty act of persuasion is being brought to us by a mother, more interested in the truth than believing what she is told by Someone Who Ought To Know. She is a mother and will fiercely dig down to find who the testing benefits – the Tested or the Testers.

*A sincere thank you to Pepper Stetler, Diversion Books, Tantor Audio, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #AMeasureofIntelligence #NetGalley 25|52:43d

[Madison ✨ (mad.lyreading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Measure of Intelligence is listed as a memoir, but it is not. It is instead a nonfiction book on the history of the IQ test and its implications, with her own experience used as a central case study. That all being said, I really enjoyed it. I knew the basics of this book, that the IQ test is based on eugenics and racism, and that people who were deemed insufficiently smart were institutionalized. However, Stetler does an amazing job of showing how the IQ test impacts more than just those on left side of the bell curve. Using her daughter with Down syndrome as a central case study, she also examines how IQ tests impact those who are deemed more intelligent, and how the way our current system is set up fails us all. While Stetler does not have solutions, she does note that we are in a current system structured around a test that does not accurately measure... anything, really. This is a deep dive of a book, but it is not written in an overly academic manner (which is a positive, particularly because Stetler is an academic). If you're interested in the topic, I'd highly recommend.

Thank you to Diversion Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Joanna Beatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having worked as a school psychologist for over two decades, I have a complicated relationship with IQ testing. This book eloquently discusses the construct of intelligence and the fallible ways it has been measured and used to segregate, while also acknowledging that IQ testing is so deeply embedded in laws and policies that it cannot just simply be done away with quickly. For the last 10 years or so of my career, I have grudgingly given the WISC or the WJ COG when required of me. But at IEPs, in my discussions with families and educators, I have tried my best to focus on what can be changed about the environment to support the learner. Working with students for over two decades has only taught me how little we actually know about "intelligence." One thing I know for sure it is not something within the individual that can be measured like blood pressure. It is complex, dependent on environmental factors, and can almost certainly never be measured fairly, accurately or meaningfully in 60 minutes with a psychologist, no matter how kind hearted and open minded that psychologist is. I hope in my lifetime our society will change the value it places on what has historically been seen as "intelligence." And in the words of the author watch "what is possible when we give up ambition, perfection, and potential to take care of those around us."

[Susannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s so very rare for me to pick up a non fic book by choice, let alone an educational one 🤣 But given that I’ve just started my Ed grad program, this seemed like a great resource.

I found the audibook to be so engaging and I looked forward to my mornings where I could listen to this. I’m still fairly new to the education field and this year I have a few students with IEPs (different from Louisa’s, but still very informational). I feel like in classes we learn a lot about the history of the education system as well as the testing process, but through the admin or school’s POV. Very rarely do we have the mother’s thoughts. Stetler’s approach was clearly personal and very heartfelt and opened my eyes up to ways to at our past testing norms can hinder or hold back certain students. I took many notes while listening and can already see its relevance in my classroom after just a few weeks of school starting.

Highly recommend! Thank you NetGalley for letting me listen to this one.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a special educator and someone who underwent IQ testing last year as part of my own evaluation for ADHD, this book really interested me. I mostly agreed with the conclusions the author draws, though some of her assumptions about the education system did draw me to mentally correct her. It’s true that our system is not amazing, and it’s true that we should not be segregating students the way we often do. I certainly agree with that. But I know the professionals I have worked with often collaborate to support their students, and not just at the annual IEP. I also get her idea of things being less specialized and more holistic, but the reality is, most of our providers and educators are already responsible for too much.

I really appreciated the author’s deep ambivalence about her own attitudes toward success and academic achievement. It is the kind of thing I think many of us would learn at a younger age, to appreciate all different forms of success, if our education system was more inclusive. I also appreciated her research into IQ testing - as with many things, including medical devices, IQ tests were designed with white, typically developing children in mind, and no one seems to care to make a version for anyone else. I know for myself because my students often do not have super reliable communication when they are tested for their triennial IEP, their scores are always interpreted with a huge degree of caution.

The biggest takeaway for me was that thinking about the interaction between an individual’s current skills and their environment is the best place to start when considering the supports they require and should receive. I have seen many people develop skills that are able to support them in using public transportation, activities of self-care, and in their vocations, and I never really have any idea what my students’ IQ scores are. Like the author, I don’t feel that a number can determine anyone’s potential.

I did not really care for the narrator too much. Her voice was a little cold and judgy to me.

Overall I really liked the book and feel like non-educators as well as educators would find it thought-provoking!

[Me, My Shelf, & I · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written with compassion and empathy, anecdotal and empirical data, this was a wonderful read.

I have known about the issues with the test from its foundations to its methods to its perceptions to its greater cultural impact for 2 decades or so now, but I'll be honest that it rarely entered my thoughts about how it affects individuals who test below 100-- or are required to take the test at all (since most of us are never put under that obligation).

Honestly time to move past these flawed tests as a society, and escape the rigid thinking that ultimately results in so much needless hierarchy and pain. This book was well worth my time.

[Tara Cignarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Information: B+
Writing: A-
Narration: B+
Best Aspect: Material about IQ and IEP’s that I rarely see in books.
Worst Aspect: Little dull and long at times.
Recommend: Yes

[Caitlin Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meticulously researched, insightful, and passionate. A must read for anyone in the fields of education and psychology.

[Angie Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book for many reasons. 1. It makes you pause and think about why things are the way they are. 2. I had an aunt with down syndrome born in the 1950s and my grandparents fought for her to be able to go to school, to be able work when they were advised to put her in home. I can’t help but think L benefited in some small way from their work. 3. Learned a lot of history I didn’t know. 4. Loved hearing L’s story and hope I do get to read it someday being told by her. 5. Made me even more adamant we need different ways of evaluating individuals successes our kids are facing an anxiety epidemic and I’m sure all the test play into it.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Diversion Books for choosing me.

Although I did learn quite a bit, I found it to be slightly tedious and repetitive. Based on other reviews, I'm going against popular opinion, and I'm glad this book found its way to the right audience even if it wasn't necessarily me.

[Dianne Danielson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food for thought regarding how we measure intelligence, how it reflects what we value in US society, and how we should come to value people in other ways that they contribute to their communities. This book champions all those who are made in God’s image (i.e. humans) regardless of their score on an IQ test.

[Anne Jisca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much through this book! Woven through her and her daughter's story, Pepper gives us a great overview of how intelligence tests came about. The biases, discrimination, and inequality that has always been part of it. She also gives us a great glimpse of how it affects people to this day. Our society puts people's worth based on what is deemed intelligent. But intelligence is so much more than what middle class white cis people consider intelligence. She exposes the intersection of intelligence with immigrants, neuro-divergence, poor, lack of support, etc

I'm very glad I picked up this book and gave it a listen!

[Audrey Trainor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the fearless attitude with which Stetler questions the very notion of IQ. In my field I read a lot about ID (Intellectual Disability) and this book was a welcomed challenge to all the beliefs and history buried under our casual use of the term. As a former HS special ed teacher, I once disputed (mildly, powerlessly) that a sophomore in my class did not seem like ID fit his learning challenges. He was bilingual and US educated since he was 5. The school psychologist shut down my input about testing results. I felt like I had made an error in professional judgment. What Stetler's investigation of the label does, that most academic articles and texts do not, is to show how we construct categories and how categories construct us, through the eyes of a mom who fiercely advocates for her child. I also recommend Michael Wehmeyer's The Story of Intellectual Disability. It is a different take, but also thought-provoking.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge thank you to Netgalley, Tantor Audio, and the author for an advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I saw the title, I knew I had to read this book. I work in the disability care industry, and I'm always looking for stories that resonate with my experience and that offer a different viewpoint. This one hit all the notes for me.

A Measure of Intelligence illuminates a part of the industry that is inherently infuriating for me as a provider. In order to qualify for services ("services" could mean a wide range of things--in my line of work it's housing, staffing, etc.; the author gives us a perspective of resources available in the school system), individuals must have a diagnosis of a disability prior to the age of 22. This usually means a Full Scale IQ (FSIQ). I've seen this become a barrier for individuals who need service but cannot receive the funding that they need.

The IQ is such an important, foundational test to how systems decide who needs help and what kind of help they qualify for (with some other markers too, but IQ is foundational). Stetler highlights why using an IQ test to determine service need is flawed. The system is doing the best it can with what is built already, but we can do better.

If you don't have any experience with intellectual disability, I think this would be a fascinating look into a world that might surprise you. Stetler shares about IQ tests, questioning if what they measure actually translates to real, lived experiences; she also questions how the IQ tests were built and normed, and what they represent to a person taking it (both sides of the spectrum, gifted and deficits). I particularly enjoyed hearing from a parent's point of view; her daughter is lucky that her parents are involved and knowledgeable about this system, as so many are not and lose out on necessary services.

I want everyone to read this book, if for no other reason than to look at the system in place and begin questioning if we are truly serving our most vulnerable children/adults in a way that honors their strengths and their needs. 5 stars, no notes.

[Jenny Dunning · Rating 3 out of 5]

When my daughter was entering a new, private school for first grade, the school gave her an IQ test, her first. I had frankly forgotten all about this--until reading Stetler's book. Her score was "average," 100. Accordingly, the first grade teacher expected only average work from her, and she was bored and unhappy at this school. By Thanksgiving, we had decided to switch her to the public school, where she entered a mixed-age classroom with first, second and third graders. In this environment, she flourished and was soon doing third grade work. A couple of years later, she took a different test and was identified as "gifted." I suspect the first test was scored in part by how quickly she performed the tasks. To this day, she is very deliberate in the way she approaches new tasks, beginning them slowly and then figuring out how to do them efficiently. The test didn't factor in her learning style.

Stetler's book is filled with a lot of history of psychology and IQ testing, much of it disturbing as the tests originated as a way to separate "imbeciles" from "normal" folk as part of the eugenics effort. And that history has not entirely disappeared, especially for someone like Stetler's daughter, who has Down syndrome. But, Stetler explains, some psychologists are now thinking of intelligence more as intellectual functioning than intellectual performance, a shift that takes into consideration the way a person functions in a particular environment. Instead of using IQ tests to segregate people, whether because of lower than average or higher scores (Stetler discusses the "gifted" movement as well), these psychologists are using them to learn where a person needs more support, focusing on the sub-tests rather than the aggregate score. Recent studies show that IQ tests are not good predictors of achievement. Having known plenty of "gifted" folks who haven't racked up accomplishments in their adult lives, I am not surprised at this finding.

[Kasia Hubbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Measure of Intelligence is a deep dive into the background of how IQ tests came to be, the highlights of what they were wanting to define, and also the conflicts that arise when one thing is being measured and yet another aspect isn't, losing sight of the personhood of the individual being assessed. This is written from the mother of a child who has Down Syndrome, and yet refuses to allow that label to define her child (rightly so), and so begins her quest to understand everything she can on the ins and outs of an IQ test and it's ramifications on a students life. Very well researched. I found myself not agreeing with the author on some of her points, only to really think it through and find that yes, I can see what she was pointing out and how if it were my child, I would most likely arrive at the same point. Very well done bringing to light our overuse of testing and labels for our kids. Highly recommend!
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook. The person who read it had a good voice to listen too and was able to keep me engaged.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started this book. My children do not have an extra chromosome, but they do have IEPs in school. I had no idea that their IQ could potentially be a detractor when it comes to the services they are able to access, despite what they are actually needing. The fear a special needs parent might feel when their child needs more services than allowed due to them having a higher IQ is palpable.

So far we haven’t experienced this, but it’s so good to know and take into account as we continue to grow with children who have iEPs.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars over 5 is because it had some repetitiveness. I know things were state multiple times in similar ways to make sure the context was understood. However, I think the author could have done without.

[Anna | readsbyanna]

this book was so interesting and taught me a lot more about IQ testing and the history behind it! as a future educator and recently having taken a special education course in which I was introduced to the topic, this was so relevant which made me super excited to pick this up. the structure of this book was nice, weaving together the author's personal experiences and research. the story provides an excellent look at the history of IQ testing, the effect it has on individuals, and the inequities and discrimination that have come about as a result. the only note I had was that the pacing seemed a bit off at times and I had to get reengaged to pay attention but overall this was a very interesting and informative read!

[Laura Gaddis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I agree with everyone who said this isn't a memoir, and that part of the title has actually been taken out (so different than the cover shown here on Goodreads). I liked the personal story woven in, as it gave context and depth to what Stetler was doing with all of this information. In those moments, the research and information was nicely threaded to the real story beneath this--how the world of intelligence testing affects Stetler and her family. As the book went on, though, we got less and less of that, and I craved that thread to continue feeling that relatability. Well-researched and I got a clear sense that the author has a real passion for this topic, and for advocating for her daughter. Recommend!

[Stephanie Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read! The history of IQ testing & laws and treatment of people with intellectual disabilities, and IQ testing for gifted & talented are woven through the narrative of her experiences with her daughter with Down Syndrome. I agreed with many of her conclusions and arguments for an educational shift that would benefit all students. I’d recommend it to any parent and everyone who works in education.

[Duaa Alzghoul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pepper Stetler challenges the very core of how we define intelligence through the emotional lens of a mother fighting for her daughter. This book skillfully blends personal narrative with a chilling exploration of the IQ test’s dark roots in eugenics and exclusion. A must-read for educators, parents, and anyone who has ever questioned the meaning of intelligence.

[Sarah Irvine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a novel (in case you were looking for one). But a terrific book, particularly if you've ever wondered what it means to be normal.

[Debbie C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the history of IDD and psychological testing components and felt she did an impressive job at understanding and communicating the complex history of psychological research for a lay audience. However, I felt any section where she sought to editorialize current policies lacked balance and nuance. It was clear her stance was more about claiming one party was better, instead of examining the evidence for how both parties have really failed at disability policy for different reasons.

Much of the memoir elements sounded like the majority of mommy influencers in the Down syndrome space. The story is always about how they had no interaction with any one of differences, and are just so shocked that there are so many jerks in the world, or how shocked they are to learn how unhelpful schools can be. I wish we focused more on reducing the bias instead of just applauding how this once out of touch person was forced to evolve. While I found that message frustrating, I hope this book helps to enlighten people and help people to grapple with their deep bias.