INTELLIGENCE-TESTING IN A BAVARIAN COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL

The comprehensive school in Munich and the University of Munich, Insti tute of Educational Psychology, are working together on a research pro ject regarding the usefulness of the Kognitiver Fahigkeits-Test KFT 4- 13+ (Heller et al., 1985), the German version of the Cognitive Abiliti es Tests (CAT, Thorndike and Hagen, 1971), for the specific work requi rements of the school psychologists at this particular type of school. As comprehensive schools are not common in Bavaria, a short review of the Bavarian school system and the history of comprehensive schools i n Bavaria are provided. In the Munich comprehensive school, the fifth, sixth and seventh graders have completed the KFT 4-13+ every year sin ce 1977. The results are used to help the school counselors recommend courses to pupils at different levels. Bringing together theoretical a nd practical aspects, information is provided about the following topi cs: changes in intelligence in the school population over the last dec ade; the stability of the test results in every cohort; the validity o f the test for comprehensive schools and its usefulness for school cou nseling; development of statistical methods; and economic aspects.1