The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale was a refinement of the earlier Binet-Simon Scale .

The first usable intelligence test was developed in 1908 by Alfred Binet and Theodore de Simon , who operated a boys school in Grange-aux-Belles, France. It was then revised by Lewis M. Terman of Stanford University for use in the United States in 1916 and published under its present name.

Despite some controversy over its accuracy and discriminatory nature, it remains a popular assessment of intelligence and is widely distributed in its fifth edition.