Posted on 06/07/2015 5:17:44 AM PDT by Zakeet
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.
At first glance, the city’s second Liberal Arts and Science Test (LAST-2) seems fairly innocuous. 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.
[Snip]
Minorities who failed the exam (who number in the thousands) may be owed years of back pay totaling millions of dollars, and those who were relegated to substitute teaching jobs could be promoted to having their own classrooms.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
This is a really, really bad decision. It hurts everyone involved, including minority teachers. I can only hope that this decision is reversed on appeal.
I vote for a tie.
Ping
I wonder what black teachers in NY, having passed the test themselves, really think about this.
Their silence is deafening.
It would be interesting to know how many of those who failed were in college because of affirmative action.
If Common Core takes root - as Jeb Bush wants very badly - what the teachers know or don’t know won’t matter anyway.
CC will take away all independence, all creativity, all discretion from the teachers and the entire school system, and replace it with their own instructions on what to teach, what to say, what answers to give to student’s questions, and even how and when to discipline.
This, while the ruling class’s kids will get a quality education free from CC with exceptional teachers.
It is a fair test. How come nobody gets to file suit against employers for requiring a passing score on the Work Keys test? Our company requires it be taken when being considered for a promotion to a new position.
That is an important thing to consider. When standards are lowered for some members of a group, the entire group will suffer for it.
Liberal judges can rule out testing and play games of “enforced” equality. They may even fool themselves into believing they’ve achieved some sort of perfection of equality. There is one thing immune to PC posturing and that’s the physical world itself. If one does not understand the physical world, no phony diluted degree is going to paper over that fact. Make the wrong decision in the physical world and you’re dead.
As an example, envision an electrician granted a license not because they understand the concepts of electrical transmission, but because they fulfill a quota. That ungrounded 220 volt 200 amp panel will be the ultimate arbiter of knowledge, and a very harsh judge indeed. An instant pass / fail exam, one might say.
Be patient. If this terrible decision stands, other tests will be up for "review" also.
If one group is too ignorant to pass a test it is not due discrimination, it is their lack of preparation. For example, if we have identical twin Greyhounds, one is fed properly, exercised and trained, and the other is fat, undisciplined and lays around all day sleeping, which will win every race?
Almost all teachers, from what I see, just follow like sheep. Most only want to collect their union-negotiated paycheck and pension, and stay healthy enough to enjoy those 180 days/yr that school is not in session.
The relatively few teachers/administrators who are truly dedicated and conscientious and actually care, are silenced pretty quickly.
I looked this up since I had never heard of it. Very, very interesting! Gee! And to think that a high school diploma was proof enough that a person was literate and numerate.
I have an idea!
If any **child** of any age choses to take the ACT Work Keys tests and passes with a high enough score, give that child an official high school diploma!
Let the child use the remainder of what would have been spent on a wasting time in high school on college tuition or trade school training.
Benefits:
1) Child starts work earlier and the state gets more taxes.
2) Fewer teachers means fewer pensions for the state to fund.
3) Less college debt for the child.
class we is here today to be studyin Obamanomics
now...raise your HAND if you are getting enough free stuff from Uncle Baraq
Okay Okay
Everybody is GETTIN an A for the DAY!!!
Now tyrone plese start ourah day by recitin the Pledge of Legiongence to Obama !
Im surprised DECENT intelligent, honest, caring, hard working teachers SURVIVE in our so called public schools today.
Shall we continue to dumb down the ENTIRE SYSTEM and HOPE....for the best??
next up, lawsuits designed to stop administering qualifying tests for airline pilots and brain surgeons.
Chicago is already coughing up blood.
How does a test tell if the person taking the test is black, white, yellow, green or red?
If they are too stupid to answer the questions, they SHOULD fail.
Even in art innumeracy is an extreme handicap.
Yesterday:
One of the artists ( age 30) with whom I share a studio took a photo and needed to enlarge a drawing of it on her canvas. She was completely at a loss on how to do this. I solved the problem using simple ration and proportion and a scale factor. It took me about 10 mins to get the image transferred.
In another studio ( a private school) the assistant ( age 21) to the master artist needed to build a panel to support a large canvas. She could not figure out how to find the underlying supports so she could drill a screw into the support from the front. She had no understanding of how to add, subtract, multiply, or divide fractions.
Pitiful! And...These are **smart**, hardworking, and motivated people who know that they have been educationally abused. Several of these young artists are trying to educate themselves by using Khan Academy.
In DeBlasio’s nasty crapola city it isn’t relevant if the teachers can pass a test on history and the Constitution as long as they can read the passages from Mao’s Little Red Book verbatim.
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