Our latest installment in the “Real Racism” series comes to us from New York City, via excerpts from Blake Neff\’s article for dailycaller.com:
A federal judge in New York has struck down a test used by New York City to vet potential teachers, finding the test of knowledge illegally discriminated against racial minorities due to their lower scores.
Unlike the unfair literacy tests of Jim Crow, LAST-2 was given to every teaching candidate in New York, and it was simply a test to make sure that teachers had a basic high school-level understanding of both the liberal arts and the sciences.
One sample question from the test asked prospective educators to identify the mathematical principle of a linear relationship when given four examples; another asked them to read four passages from the Constitution and identify which illustrated checks and balances. Besides factual knowledge, the test also checks basic academic skills, such as reading comprehension and the ability to read basic charts and graphs.
Nevertheless, this apparently neutral subject matter contained an insidious kernel of racism, because Hispanic and black applicants had a passage rate only 54 to 75 percent of the passage rate for whites.
Once their higher failure rate was established, the burden shifted to New York to prove that LAST-2 measured skills that were essential for teachers and therefore was justified in having a racially unequal outcome. While it might seem obvious that possessing basic subject knowledge is a key skill for a teacher, District Judge Kimba Wood said the state hadn’t met that burden.
This is outrageous.
If the test were different for Whites than it was for Blacks and Latinos, or the questions were clearly constructed to favor Whites over Blacks and Latinos, that would be one thing.
But, unless Mr. Neff is egregiously misrepresenting the nature of the test – which I am certain he is not, if for no other reason because I am sure New York City would never put together a test that discriminatory – then the results are what they are, and potential teachers who scored too low should either be told they must learn enough re-take and pass such a test or find another line of work.
What does this disparity in test results actually mean?
If you believe, as I do, that Black and Latino people are as capable of learning as Whites are, the most likely meaning is that Blacks and Latinos are not being as well prepared as Whites are.
And who is doing the inadequate preparing? The the schools they attended and the teachers who taught them, that\’s who.
So what is the answer? To improve the schools (how about starting by isolating, or tossing out, disruptive students, no matter what their color or ethnicity is, so that children who want to learn, can learn)? To insist that teachers who are not doing an adequate job of instructing children either improve or leave the system?
Or to claim that a neutral test somehow should not count, get rid of the test, and, by so doing, allow unprepared teachers into the classrooms….so they can unprepare a new generation of students?
Well, you read the article. You know the answer.
Real racism. It comes in all forms from all sources. No group is immune to it or from it. Certainly not a benighted, foolish judge who thinks that it can be solved by lowering standards for minorities and, in effect, saying that, for people like them, inferior performance is just fine – as if that will make things all better.
It won\’t.
