Advancement Project

July 7, 2009

Ricci, Testing and Racial Inequality

A lot has been said about the Ricci v. DeStefano case since the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last week that the city discriminated against 17 White firefighters and one Latino firefighter when it threw out a promotional exams that failed to promote any Black firefighters.

But little has been said about the racial disparities that are often inherent when institutions rely heavily on written tests to gauge achievement.

For years, studies have shown that the racial and cultural biases that are involved in test preparation often favor Whites at the expense of People of Color.

Such tests, which have been used to restrict access to competitive jobs and colleges, result in far fewer Blacks and Latinos passing the exams than would have been the case if fairer means were used to measure achievement.

Promotions in the New Haven test were based on an oral and a written test with 60 percent of the score needed for promotion tied to the written portion and 40 percent based on the oral portion.

The testing issue, in a case like this, reveals the unacceptable levels of racial inequality and racial division in the United States that leads to such lawsuits being filed.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted in the dissenting opinion that such written tests have historically put Black people at a disadvantage because African Americans don’t score as highly as Whites.

These tests really reveal the inherent inequity in the quality of life for Blacks and Latinos and Whites in this nation’s public schools. People of Color go to schools with fewer books and less equipment, fewer certified teachers and higher student-to-teacher ratios.

These racial disparities in resources existed before the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that integrated public schools more than a half century ago. In fact, the disparities have existed since slavery.

People of color grow up in neighborhoods and with families that are poorer yet they must compete on the same standardized tests with people who have had much better formal educations.

Is it fair to penalize a firefighter who shows great aptitude on the job and strong competency for a promotion because he or she is not a great test taker? Should you penalize the firefighter for having less resources and going to inferior schools?

This is what exams often do—they function as gatekeepers--rewarding the privileged with more privilege--a coveted job or seat in an elite college or university. These tests that confer additional privilege aren’t necessarily good barometers of how well a person will perform in a profession that requires dozens of skills beyond written test skills.

Let me ask this: if you were about to board a plane would you want a pilot flying your plane who achieved the highest score on a written exam or one who had demonstrated competency in real or simulated emergency situations in the field? I know I would prefer the pilot with demonstrated competence in the field over the better test taker.

Ginsburg acknowledged the problem with written tests in her dissent when she noted that other testing procedures could have been used in New Haven that would place less emphasis on a written exam and thus, in all likelihood, have a less disparate impact.

I can understand the frustration that White firefighters and the lone Latino plaintiff might have felt after studying for a test and being told that the results wouldn’t count. They prevailed and have celebrated their victory.

But we have not heard much about what Black firefighters thought of the test. We have not heard about their background or their struggles. We have not heard about the documented history of discrimination Black firefighters faced in New Haven.

The New Haven Independent reports that the city is 44 percent White, yet the department is 57 percent White. At the time the suit was filed in 2003, Ginsburg noted that only one of the city’s 21 fire captains was African American.

The majority decision simply added to the structural inequality in New Haven while doing nothing to bring about racial equality or end racial division.

Unfortunately, municipalities that seek to address exam results that have had a racially disparate impact on People of Color will feel forced by this decision to certify test results even when they increase racial inequality.

It will thus be incumbent on People of Color to ensure—to whatever extent they can--that tests they take for promotions and jobs are not unfair and will not put them at a disadvantage.

Rushing is the writer-editor at Advancement Project, a national civil rights group that advocates for racial justice.