NYC to pay $1.8B over past ‘racist’ teaching exam, but recent exams show low performance among blacks as well.

New York City Settles Lawsuit, Paying Billions to Aspiring Black and Hispanic Teachers

In a groundbreaking settlement, New York City has agreed to pay nearly $2 billion to black and Hispanic individuals who aspired to become teachers but failed the exam. The lawsuit alleged that the disparate passage rates indicated racial bias within the test.

The settlement has sparked controversy, as some individuals who never worked as teachers will receive over $1 million each, potentially leading to inflated costs beyond the initial $1.8 billion. The New York Post reported the case of Herman Grim, a 64-year-old who will be paid $2,055,383 despite failing the test multiple times. However, Grim was unable to provide any examples of how the questions were racist.

One anonymous Brooklyn principal told The Post the city was “crazy” to settle the case because “The standards are the standards … To hire people who are not qualified and change the requirements because a certain group didn‘t pass the test is bulls**t.”

The lawsuit specifically targeted the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, which prospective teachers took between 1993 and 1995. The pass rates revealed a significant disparity, with over 90% of white individuals passing the test compared to only 53% of black individuals and even fewer Hispanics.

However, critics argue that these statistics do not necessarily prove racial bias within the test. They point to the results of the Praxis exam, which is widely used by most states to credential their teachers. According to a 2011 study co-written by the National Education Association, the passing rates for African-American test takers were consistently lower than those of white test takers by 35% or more.

While the NEA claims that Praxis is also racist, their own study does not support this assertion. The book “Race to the Bottom: Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Education” states that the results from their analyses align with similar tests of academic skills, such as the SAT and ACT. The study also found a correlation between the teaching exam scores and GPA, with black individuals tending to have lower GPAs.

Despite these findings, by 2017, 12 states, including New York, had transitioned to a more subjective test called edTPA. This change aimed to address concerns that previous tests did not accurately identify effective teachers and allowed candidates to submit videos of themselves teaching. However, the book discovered that black prospective teachers in New York State failed the edTPA at nearly twice the rate of whites and Hispanics.

In 2017, New York State eliminated its literacy test requirement for teachers due to low passing rates among Hispanic and black test takers. The book “Race to the Bottom” highlights the controversy surrounding the fight to lower teaching standards, arguing that it prioritizes job opportunities for adults over the educational needs of children.

Teachers unions advocate for increased representation of minority teachers, claiming that black students learn better when taught by black teachers. However, “Race to the Bottom” challenges this notion, citing a study that found the improvement in test scores to be statistically insignificant.

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