Numbers in 1920, letters after the revision
The first printing numbered the General Examinations 1 to 5. The revised editions of 1921–22 relettered them, A and B (later C) in Series I, and C and D in Series II. Pick a grade and an edition.
Picture-puzzle folders, fold-out sheets and a manual of scripts
Shapes, drawings and word problems on one page
The revised Series II-C folds out to six pages mixing pen-and-ink pictures, shapes and word problems. Six items in that mix, written for this page.
Wesleyan BA 1900 and MA 1903; Columbia PhD 1906; a medical degree from Munich in 1913. He taught at Wisconsin and Chicago before joining Harvard in 1912, where he stayed. His early research was on reading problems, and one of his best-known findings was that left-eyed children were more likely to have reading difficulties.
In Intelligence Tests: Their Significance for School and Society (1928) he backed testing to guide teaching, but argued that measured intelligence was not a constant and moved with learning and experience.
Sources cited on this page
- [1]National Museum of American History. Dearborn Group Tests Revised Edition, Series II, Examination C (1922).americanhistory.si.eduUsed for: Biography, 1920 publication, two series and grade ranges, publishers.
- [2]National Museum of American History. Games and Picture Puzzles, Dearborn Group Test of Intelligence, Series I (1921 revised).si.eduUsed for: 1921 revision, Lippincott.
- [3]National Museum of American History. Psychological Tests, Dearborn Group Tests (Series II manual).americanhistory.si.eduUsed for: 1920/1922/1924 copyrights, Series II wording (grades IV to XII, normal and college classes, adults), manual contents.
- [4]National Museum of American History. Psychological Test Record Sheet, Dearborn Group Intelligence Tests.americanhistory.si.eduUsed for: Record sheets and return address.
- [5]National Museum of American History. Psychological Tests, Dearborn Group Tests of Intelligence (group of booklets).americanhistory.si.eduUsed for: Numbered and lettered examinations, folder contents.
- [6]The Online Books Page: Walter F. Dearborn.onlinebooks.library.upenn.eduUsed for: Digitized manuals; 1923 form-board series; Series II grades 4–9 in one catalogue entry.
- [7]Library of Congress. Manual of directions for giving and scoring the Dearborn group tests of intelligence (Lippincott, c1920).loc.govUsed for: 1920 manual.
- [8]Wikipedia. Walter Dearborn.en.wikipedia.orgUsed for: Left-eyedness finding, 1928 book and its argument.
What changed in this revision
Built from Smithsonian object records and library catalogues. Both 1920 manuals are digitized (HathiTrust and archive.org) but were not read for this revision, so no item content or norms are given.
- CORRECTEDThere were two series, not three: Series I for grades I–III and Series II for grades IV–XII (and adult groups). The old A/B/C “series” were in fact examination letters.
- REMOVEDThe five-subtest list (vocabulary, reading, arithmetic, completion, disarranged sentences) and the rivals/“displaced by” strip. Neither is in the records we found.
- ADDEDRecord-sheet hero, a grade × edition examination picker, surviving booklets, a Series II-C-style page, Dearborn's career and works, and 8 references.
- FLAGGEDOne library catalogue gives Series II's range as grades 4–9, against IV–XII in the Smithsonian's quotation of the manual.
- KEPTAn interactive sample, now modelled on the documented II-C content mix.
Related historical tests
Dearborn published “in the wake of” the Army programme. The Alpha showed that a whole room could be tested at once from a printed booklet, which every 1920 school group test copied.
The NIT, built by the Army psychologists' committee, came out the same year for grades 3–8. It and Dearborn's tests competed for the same schools.
Otis's scale was published commercially the same year as Dearborn's. Both split by school level, Primary and Advanced for Otis, Series I and II for Dearborn.
Haggerty's Delta tests followed a year later for a similar grade span. Comparing the two shows how quickly school group testing filled up after 1920.
Dearborn's Series I relied on games and picture puzzles for young children. Pintner went further, dropping language entirely for deaf and foreign-born children.
The Educational Test Bureau of Minneapolis, which took over Dearborn's tests, launched Kuhlmann-Anderson in 1927 with nine grade booklets instead of two series.