It was news to me that black children are not allowed to take IQ tests in California:

The United States may have come a long way in the fight against institutionalized racism but in California, black children are still being denied access to an important educational tool.

Pamela Lewis wanted to have her 6-year-old son Nicholas take a standardized IQ test (search) to determine if he qualifies for special education speech therapy. Officials at his school routinely provide the test to kids but as Lewis soon found out, not to children who are black, due to a statewide policy that goes back to 1979.

To some, this may seem like a discriminatory matter. Obviously, the state has been pushing the African-American child down since 1979 and it's time for it to stop. Except, like so many stories of outrage, this only looks bad until you hear the other side:

At that time, many black kids performed poorly on the IQ test and wound up in special education classes. A lawsuit claimed the test was biased and a judge agreed — banning public schools from giving the test to black children while allowing it for everyone else.

Now that the jury has finished deliberating, we have the verdict: IQ testing is discriminatory. And so is refusal to administer the test. It will be interesting to see what the State of California decides to do with this quandry. It has already been preordained that the decision they make is the wrong one. (I suppose they could escape mostly unscathed by getting out of the business of administering tests altogether.)

Let's take a minute and talk about intelligence. To a small degree, there is a genetic component of intelligence. Not in a racial sense, but in a family sense. If your parents are bright, chances are you will be also. This does give a minor advantage to some, but not one that can't be overcome by others, except in the most severe cases.

Environment has a much greater influence on educational aptitude. It has the power to motivate or deter. Adults in the home can demand accountability and demonstrate the importance of education. Alternatively, they can deter their child from studies by their own indifference.

The individual also has to make a choice. Some students with every possible advantage and opportunity fail miserably, while others facing very steep odds sail through school with honors and medals.

The IQ test issue is not a race problem. Tests are tools used to indicate how well someone is doing in some specific area. If my kids do poorly on a test, my initial response would never be to blame the test. I would not demand that the school stop giving them tests because I don't want them (or me) to look dumb. I want to know where they are at, so I know where to encourage and how to help them take full advantage of their God-given gifts and abilities.

I believe this test issue highlights exactly what Bill Cosby has been talking about.