"I Also Have Much Faith in Intelligence Testing": Reassessing Horace Mann Bond and Allison Davis

• In Event: From Eugenics to Standardized Testing: Histories of Educational Assessment

Abstract

This paper reassesses the careers of Horace Mann Bond and Allison Davis, two Black scholars who spent the bulk of their careers critiquing the racist logics that undergird intelligence tests. Bond and Davis are perhaps the two most prominent Black social scientists who critiqued the creation and implementation of intelligence testing during the early 20th century. However, both nonetheless continued to advocate for their implementation in schools and universities. Tracing the Du Boisian influence on Bond and Davis offers insight into how these scholars could support the continued use of the very instrument they spent their careers decrying. His shadow looms large over both of their careers and his work offers a roadmap to making sense of this inconsistency.

Author

• Ayan Ali, Stanford University
  Presenting Author