Basic Skills Test for Teachers

Re “Suit Challenges Basic Skills Test for Teachers as Biased,” Feb. 5: Thousands of college-educated teachers are suing the state because they can’t pass a basic proficiency test that, as teachers, they would expect a high school senior to be able to pass. Is this correct? If so, how did these teachers pass the SAT to get into college in the first place?

What’s next? Do we dummy down the medical board exams because there aren’t enough minority doctors passing the exam? Teachers need to be held to the same high standards as other professions requiring certification exams: doctors, lawyers, general contractors and barbers. It seems that these crybabies feel it’s easier attacking the test than studying for it. Tests are tough. Ask your students if you don’t believe it.

Personal note: I am a CPA and admit it took me six tries to pass the exam.

FRED R. LANG

Irvine

* As an educator of Cuban descent, I am appalled at the mere assertion that the CBEST test is biased against minorities. California needs top-caliber people to educate our children. Moreover, demanding that teaching applicants possess above average skills in the three Rs is not asking too much. I truly wonder if the lawyers representing Sam Genis and the other plaintiffs involved would settle for mediocre teachers with substandard skills educating their children.

EMILIO J. URIOSTE JR.

Hollywood

* It is more than a little disheartening to read the arguments for maintaining the CBEST test. Clearly, the disparity among the rates at which different ethnic groups pass the test shows that it is culturally biased. If it is culturally biased, then it is discriminatory, and if it is discriminatory, it is illegal and should not be an instrument by which a person is judged competent to teach our children.

The rationale for the CBEST exam is that it maintains academic standards. A three-part, four- or five-hour test does not test basic skills in any meaningful way. At most, it tests test-taking skills. And 60% of California’s school-age students are from diverse populations. By throwing another roadblock in the path of teachers who are knowledegeable about the communities they hope to serve, the CBEST test fails us all.

DAMIANA M. ALDANA

Claremont