Implicit and incorrect assumptions concerning the assessment of the latino in the United States

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Abstract
Most of the research on the assessment of the intelligence of Latinos in the United States has shown that they score significantly lower than Anglo-Americans on a variety of standard measures of intellectual functioning. Before taking such data at face value and drawing premature generalizations, a number of erroneous often implicitly made assumptions are reviewed in this paper. An evaluation of the evidence for each of the assumptions indicates that much of the data gathered about Latinos, as well as many of the instruments used to gather it, have grown out of a tradition frought with problems, both moral and methodoligicaL Suggestions are given on ways to restructure assessment procedures so that data collected are more germane to the development of programming for the Latino population. It is now over 50 years since investigators began to evaluate the intellectual functioning and to assess the intelligence and personality of the more than 12 million people of Latino origin in the United States (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1978). Most studies conducted with this group have been in the American tradition of hard-nosed empiricism with considerable emphasis placed on the development of sophisticated techniques of measurement. Much emphasis has been placed on the construction of new and better