Review of Educational Achievement in Relation to Intelligence

Abstract

Reviews the book, Educational Achievement in Relation to Intelligence by Charles W. St. John (1930). The author very carefully avoids the assumption that he is measuring the relation between intelligence and all the outcomes of education. The study comprises a considerable body of original experimental work with approximately a thousand school children in the lowest six grades over a period of four years. In addition there is a review of a number of previous studies carried out in the same field. The experimental work done here seems to have been undertaken with more thoroughness than most previous studies but the general results are much the same. Correlation techniques are used with the general finding that the highest correlations are observed between scores in standard tests and intelligence. Even here, though, the author is at pains to point out that there are other factors determining school success which, in their aggregate effect, must be considered fully as important as the single one of intelligence. The study is cautious and the author is wary of drawing any sweeping conclusions. For the "amateur" reader in this field the author has included some explanations of techniques which the more experienced reader will hasten past. Chapters are well summarized. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)