Thursday, October 24, 2013

Hall v Florida Atkins ID SCOTUS review: ICDP prior comments re SEM and problems with Florida's Atkins criteria

The Hall v Florida Atkins case, which will be reviewed by SCOTUS, has been generating considerable buzz the past few days, including an editorial in the NY Times (Intellectual Disability and the Death Penalty - 10-22-13; image of editorial below--click to enlarge to read). 

This is a very important case given Florida's complete disregard for the scientific facts that underlie the psychometrics of intelligence tests--in favor of a "bright line" criteria that fails to account for the standard error of measurement (SEM) in IQ scores.

I have previously made a couple of posts re this problem in Florida.  These posts can be found here.  Together with Kevin Foley, I published an IAP Psychometrics 101 Report (#11) which addresses the issue of the SEM in Atkins cases.

I hope that SCOTUS will recognize the obvious scientific flaws in the Florida Atkins criteria.

(Click image to enlarge)