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The
practice seems straightforward enough: Let a civil service exam, open to
all, determine who will be eligible for promotion in city and state
departments. Those with the highest scores receive the available positions.Certainly this more objective method is
preferable to the old system of racial and ethnic discrimination, corruption,
patronage, and getting ahead by “who you know.”
So,
to qualify as a teacher of English, I was required to take the
literature portion of the National Teachers’ Exam.Questions
included selections from poetry, such as the following: “Hail to thee, blithe
spirit / _____ thou never wert.” One scored well by remembering that
the correct word for the blank was “bird.” Additional points were
gained by remembering that the author was Percy Bysshe
Shelley.
The
key word here—and the basis for success on the National Teachers’ Exam—is “remember.” The prime value on the test, the most
decisive quality, was factual recall of specific information. The test
did not determine one’s aptitude to interpret poetry well; it did not
show whether a teacher candidate had any love of poetry or the ability
to impart those skills and feelings to students. In short, the teaching
test did not measure the ability to teach.
As
it turned out, I fared quite well on the National Teachers’ Exam.
Nonetheless, a 98% score was not sufficient to land a job in the Boston public schools. Black
candidates who scored even 20 points lower were hired instead.
Choosing
to hire minorities despite test scores was the right decision.
For years, Boston city schools were largely
closed to minority teachers. A policy of de facto segregation
worked to the advantage of whites. To correct that injustice, to
restore some element of fairness, the advantage had to be tipped in
favor of Blacks. That was the sensible, practical decision.
The
same principle applies in a recent affirmative action-type conflict in New Haven, Conn. As part of the requirements
for job promotion in the fire department, candidates had to take a
multiple choice objective test which counted for 60% of the total
examination. The resulting test scores largely favored white
candidates; though Black candidates passed the exam, none performed
well enough for the 15 available officer positions.
This
result was entirely predictable. For reasons that are beyond the
scope of this article, it is well known that, as a group, Blacks score
lower than whites on standardized tests. (For an insightful analysis,
see Richard Rothstein, “Class and Schools”). In addition to the
questionable value of a multiple choice exam, then, the test was almost
certain to show skewed results on the basis of race, as, in fact, it
did.
Consequently,
the Civil Service Board in New Haven threw out the test
results. Eighteen firefighters—17 whites
and one Latino—promptly sued the city. These individuals, who
might otherwise have been promoted, claimed they were victims of racial
and ethnic discrimination.
Their
case was rejected by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, a court that
included Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Last June, in
the case of Ricci v. DeStefano, the
U.S. Supreme Court narrowly ruled (5-4) against New Haven ’s decision and reversed the
findings of the Court of Appeals (see the August Socialist Action
for a report on the case).
The
court majority’s judgment rested on false reasoning. The court
concluded that the exam was valid because it was “job related.” No
doubt this is true, but, as the National Teachers’ Exam shows,
“related” may not be relevant. The court did not question whether the
pencil and paper test actually revealed the skills necessary to function
effectively as an officer in a city fire department.
To
accept the test scores as the key factor in promotion meant advancing
no Black candidates to lieutenant or captain in a city almost 40%
Black. The resulting adverse social effects of that decision cannot be
measured by a multiple-choice exam. New Haven was right to discard the
test results and look for a better means of job promotion. The
city should have done so in the first place.
Nor
does it matter that multiple-choice testing was the preferred choice of
the firefighters’ union and part of their contract. This provision
was included decades ago at the initiative of an all-white fire
department. While the racial and ethnic composition of the
department has changed, the procedures for promotion have not.
Here is another way in which bias is hidden.
The
question, ultimately, before the Supreme Court were the issues of
fairness and racial preference. The court had to decide whether race
was still a significant factor in limiting success for Blacks in
American life. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, the conservative
court said no, that in the “land of the free” every individual is equal
before the law. In effect, the court said that institutional racism
does not exist, that inequality in everyday life is of no real
consequence. Racism, said the court, was no factor because the Black
firefighters were free to take the exam.
The
Supreme Court’s ruling will make racial equality even more difficult to
achieve. In fact, they see no merit to the goal. This decision shows
once again that the struggle for justice will first be won in the
streets before it is recognized by the courts.
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