Suit Challenges Basic Skills Test for Teachers as Biased

Over the past 15 years, Sam Genis has taught Spanish and math to grade schoolers and high schoolers. He’s been a principal and athletic director, helped put out a yearbook and advised members of the student council, all at private schools in Montebello and Bellflower.

Still, despite his experience and favorable evaluations of his job performance by superiors, no public school in the state can legally hire him, because Genis does not read English well enough to pass the California Basic Educational Skills Test and obtain a teaching license.

That test was introduced 13 years ago at a time of grave concern about the academic skills of the state’s teaching force. It was supposed to bolster public confidence that all teachers could read, write and compute at least as well as the average high school sophomore.

But attorneys for Genis and tens of thousands of other Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans who have failed the test have sued the state. Although Genis, a Latino, declined to be interviewed, his attorneys argue that the test should be abolished because it discriminates against nonwhite candidates and does not effectively measure what it takes to make a good classroom teacher.

The case--which is being called the nation’s largest-ever employment discrimination lawsuit--goes to trial today in federal court in San Francisco.

The plaintiffs contend that not only is the test biased against minorities, but that it amounts to an illegal and absurd IQ test. CBEST paints the politically attractive illusion that the state is upholding educational quality, they say, but it fails to deliver better teachers.

“There’s a stronger relationship between your social security number and your CBEST score than between your job performance and the CBEST,” said John T. Affeldt, a San Francisco attorney who represents the plaintiffs in the case.

“Proven administrators who have neither studied nor needed geometry in 30 years are suddenly at risk of losing a job which requires no geometry because of the CBEST math section,” according to the lawsuit.

“Much-needed bilingual math teachers are prevented from teaching because their written English lacks idiomatic flair; teachers of Spanish for native speakers are hired instead by private schools because they cannot answer as many reading questions in an hour as a native English test taker.”

The state Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which administers the test, acknowledges that ethnic groups pass the three-part exam at different rates.

The plaintiffs say the magnitude of those differences prove that the test is racially biased. Eighty percent of white applicants, for example, pass on their first try, while the rate is 38% for African Americans, 49% for Latinos, and 53% for Asian Americans.

“With such a huge number of minorities consistently failing the test, then you need to question the test, not . . . the quality of the candidates,” said Theresa Montano, a Los Angeles teachers union representative who is past president of the Assn. of Mexican American Educators, one of the groups that is a plaintiff in the case.

But Lawrence Ashe, the Georgia-based attorney defending the state in the case, said the passage rates reflect those teacher candidates’ backgrounds rather than discrimination.

“It’s an indictment of the quality of education provided to the individuals who are failing,” Ashe said. “But don’t shoot the messenger, take the message to heart and correct the problem. It’s a little hard to argue that a . . . teacher should not be able to read and write.”

But plaintiffs say the single test used to gauge the skills of every teacher is too blunt an instrument to determine who should be allowed to take charge of a classroom. Should a first grade teacher, for example, be required to demonstrate the same proficiency in mathematics as a calculus teacher? Must a physical education instructor be able to write as well as a high school composition teacher?

Ashe acknowledged that the test, on its own, cannot predict whether a candidate will succeed in the classroom. But, he said, it was not designed to do that.

Rather, he said, the test aims to “try to keep out of public school classrooms those whose minimum cognitive skills . . . are so low that it is considered an inappropriate risk to the children.”

But Affeldt said a statistical analysis of test results, conducted by experts hired by the plaintiffs, found that race, rather than educational background or even language fluency, is the single greatest factor in determining whether someone passes.

And the plaintiffs claim that CBEST has kept the state’s teaching force overwhelmingly white, even though nearly 60% of California’s students are from minority groups.

The plaintiffs already have won several significant victories in the case.

In May 1990, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission found that the test was discriminatory and not clearly related to the skills required of teachers. The E.E.O.C., however, did not sue the state to enforce its finding.

In 1993, federal Judge William H. Orrick ruled that the CBEST is an employment exam and that, as such, it must meet federal fairness standards. And in 1994, he allowed the case to be a class action suit on behalf of the 50,000 minority teacher candidates who have failed the test since 1982.

As a result of the litigation, the state analyzed the test to make sure it covered only those skills essential to teaching, then revised the math portion, removing items involving geometry and algebra and leaving only questions that required basic computation and problem-solving skills. Now, for example, teacher candidates no longer have to know the difference between an average, a median and a mode.

California is one of about 30 states that require applicants for teaching jobs to pass some sort of basic skills test. Such tests were controversial when introduced in the early 1980s but have, for the most part, become accepted, as part of a nationwide movement to professionalize teaching.

A challenge to the Texas test, for example, was defeated in federal district court. And the two statewide unions that represent California teachers support the CBEST, although CTA officials say they are withholding judgment on of whether the test is discriminatory until the case us completed.

Assemblyman Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino) last year sponsored legislation to get rid of the CBEST, claiming that it discriminates against candidates “who are not good test takers but are good teachers.” But he said he withdrew the legislation in the face of Republican opposition.

In California, college graduates must pass CBEST before gaining admittance to a required two-year teacher preparation program. Teachers seeking promotions to administrative positions and those who have been allowed in the classroom under temporary licenses also have to pass the test. Private school teachers do not need to pass the test.

Fred Ellis is part of a joint effort by the Oakland Unified School District and Cal State Hayward to increase the number of minority teachers. He said the CBEST represents a major hurdle for many candidates and that without coaching from his program “a lot of people were eliminated . . . who could be very successful in a classroom setting.”

Those who fail the test, he said, are often discouraged and embarrassed.

That was exactly the reaction of Carla Hall, who had been an award-winning math teacher at an alternative academy in the Oakland school district for several years when she first failed the writing portion of the test. She took several college writing courses and eventually passed, on her fifth try. But the scars from the experience remain.

“I just felt horrible,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do if I didn’t pass this test, because I had spent my life thinking I was going to be a teacher.”

Affeldt said the plaintiffs seek monetary damages for unsuccessful test-takers. And if the judge refuses to eliminate the test altogether, Affeldt will ask him to order changes to make the test easier and to lower the passing score.

But many believe that would be a step backward; that standards for teachers should be raised, not lowered.

“We are not here to provide a jobs program,” said David Tokofsky, a member of the Los Angeles Board of Education and a former high school teacher. “We’re here for the benefit of our kids.”

“We can get people who know the community . . . and who are multicultural and multidimensional as our student population and still have high standards.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

A Test Sampler

Some examples of questions that might appear on the California Basic Educational Skills Test.

READING

Q. The Great Depression of the 1930s accelerated a trend in the field of education already underway--the rise in educational standards for teachers. The difficulty of finding jobs encouraged prospective teachers to stay in school longer; school districts could not insist that teachers have a college degree, often without raising salaries or improving working conditions.

Based on the information in the passage, which of the following is a true statement about trends in education during the Great Depression in the United States?

A. College degree programs increased their requirements.

B. Standards of education for teachers rose because jobs were scarce.

C. School districts encouraged teachers to accept lower salaries.

D. Prospective teachers insisted on improved working conditions.

E. Working conditions declined as educational standards increased.

(Answer: B)

****

MATH

Q. An airport shuttle bus can hold, at most, 20 passengers per trip. What is the least number of trips to town that the bus must make to transport 90 passengers from the airport to the town?

A. 3 1/2

B. 4

C. 4 1/2

D. 5

E. 6

(Answer: D)

****

WRITING

An example of a topic on which teacher candidates would be asked to write an expressive essay:

Ernest Hemingway once commented, “As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.” To what extent do you agree or disagree with his observation? Support your opinion with specific examples.

****

SUMMARY

The reading and math portions of the test each consist of 50 multiple choice questions, of which only 40 count. To pass, an applicant must answer 28 of 40 correctly in reading and 29 of 40 correctly in math. The writing test consists of two essays, one expressive and one expository, using a given set of facts. Each of the essays is scored by two judges, who rank it on a scale of one to four. Passing requires 12 out of 16 possible points. There is no limit on attempts.

Source: California Commission on Teacher Credentialing