We've got a few people who are responding to this post defending the usage of IQ, questioning that IQ is still used, assuming I don't know what IQ means, etc. I have neither the time nor the inclination to reply to each of these people and try to teach/prove anything to them, so I will simply say this.

I am trained in psychology and education at the master's level so I am fully aware of what it is, where it came from, how it works, etc. Moreover, I have had modern iterations of intelligence scales administered to me. Finally, I have worked in schools for 11 years in special education & counseling so I am very familiar with how these things function in the real world.

Psychology, education, medicine, etc are all irrevocably tainted by their participation in white supremacy, capitalism, ableism, and so on. These disciplines are not neutral or objective and their abuse of marginalized groups has never stopped. The tools, metrics, labels, definitions, categories, and all other outgrowths of these twisted and corrupted areas of study are therefore also sites of oppression. IQ is one of the worst of these.

Do your own research on scientific racism, yes. But also just know that our research tools are not exempt from those glaring flaws either. If you are going to even come close to finding something remotely resembling the truth, you have got to engage with these things critically. You have got to have the courage to reject the incorrect and violent assumptions underpinning these various fields. You have got to be ruthless with yourself also, for everything that you have been taught has the seeds of oppression within it.

None of what I said was wrong. IQ is fake. It's white supremacist propaganda. Get your shit together and THINK FOR YOURSELF

@tillshadeisgone Do we have more accurate and useful replacements?

Our local gifted education program uses IQ in part as an entry requirement and I know it was also part of some of the diagnostics trying to get my kids proper support for ADHD and potential ASD.

If DSM-V says X, I'm not qualified to refute it, but I also don't know what alternatives we have in the cases where it's genuinely used to try to help people.