NY Literacy Test for Teachers Deemed Racist, After Too Many Minority Teachers Failed

[Robbie Barrett]

everything is racist when it comes to that group. they are the most fragile and sensitive kind. i hope there wont be any rioting or looting......

when theres music playing and/or a round orange ball in the mix, things tend to be more civil. just dont serve any henney.

''ms johnson.''
''yeah what.''
''1 + 1 doesnt = 11.''
''who is you tryna correck ?!?!?!?''

I see you're stepping it up. What you got to do to get some attention Elroy? It's like nobody sees your posts.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

It's not racist...

But the test itself seems poorly put together and confusing. If whites have the highest average and are only at 64% and one of the proponents of the use of some sort of test are only getting 21 out of 40, obviously the test needs to be redone..

But lowering or getting rid of the standards is not the answer, just get a better, less confusing test

[JimRaynor]

It's not racist...

But the test itself seems poorly put together and confusing. If whites have the highest average and are only at 64% and one of the proponents of the use of some sort of test are only getting 21 out of 40, obviously the test needs to be redone..

But lowering or getting rid of the standards is not the answer, just get a better, less confusing test

The test probably does suck, however, the bigger issue is how its being treated by the academic association and liberal media that's really chappin my ass.

[BrometheusBob.]

They're not saying the test is racist, just the results that come out of the tests are racist, which is tantamount to saying the test is racist.

"Having a white workforce really doesn't match our student body anymore," Soodak said.

Kate Walsh, the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said that the reason that blacks and Latinos don't score as well as whites on the literacy test is because of various factors like poverty and the legacy of racism. Walsh said that is the symptom on other standardized tests as well."

Of course its always racism holding back everyone but whites to succeed, except when it comes to East Asians, they somehow managed to avoid that pesky racism bug that seems to bite everyone else.




Do you understand how stupid this sounds? You create an academic literary test where people fail, because they cannot pass said literacy test, therefore you blame the test and get rid of the whole thing, rather than pointing the blame at the lack of qualification of the test takers. Should we also scrape sports like basketball or football because they are disproportionately representing black people over white people? Surely it can't be do to white people on average being less athletic than black people.

Also the only people citing lack of evidence for the test effectiveness are unsurprisingly the ones affected by it.

First off, I'm not a minority so it's not true that the only people saying that are the ones affected by it.

Second off, pointing out that the only people who are complaining are minorities (even if that were true) is not evidence that the test is good. If you can demonstrate that the test selects better teachers, then I'm 1000% in support of the test. If it so happens to be that minorities aren't as good of teachers, then so be it. But that evidence simply hasn't been offered so far.

Third off, the sports argument does not work whatsoever. Who gets a spot on the teams is determined by who is better at the sport. That's fair. The same can't be said for teachers in NY who have to take a literacy test that not only cannot be shown to select good teachers from bad, it cannot even be shown to be a good test of literacy. That's not fair.

Fourth, they aren't saying that the test or even the test results are racist. Again, the test is itself just a set of questions which are very unlikely to be overtly racist in any way. The fact that White and Asian people do better on the test is also not racist. What they are saying is that using test results that do not separate good candidates from bad candidates AND that disproportionately favor people of some races is racist. Either of those two things individually are not racist by themselves, you can't understand the argument being made without considering both of those things simultaneously.

As an example, suppose I administered a literacy test to fill up my basketball team. The test doesn't separate good basketball players from bad ones, it's just a test. And as it so happens people of some given race do worse on the test than others. Is the test racist? No. Is the fact that some races do better on the test racist? Still no. Is the fact that I'm using a test to fill a basketball team, that I know some races do better on than other races, and that I know isn't a test that determines who is better at basketball, racist? I'd say yes.

[Elroy The Great]

for some reason, some pics dont like this site

(im damn curious)

edit.....

the squad is always there when you need them

[Elroy The Great]

I see you're stepping it up. What you got to do to get some attention Elroy? It's like nobody sees your posts.

i almost went completely under the radar....you ruined that.

[JimRaynor]

First off, I'm not a minority so it's not true that the only people saying that are the ones affected by it.

I was referring to people primarily in the article who think they need more minority teachers regardless of their qualifications.

Second off, pointing out that the only people who are complaining are minorities (even if that were true) is not evidence that the test is good. If you can demonstrate that the test selects better teachers, then I'm 1000% in support of the test. If it so happens to be that minorities aren't as good of teachers, then so be it. But that evidence simply hasn't been offered so far.

Let's see, a literacy test designed to do exactly that, select better teachers is all of a sudden crap to you because people who are failing it are complaining? The judge deemed it fair and ironically it's only being scrutinized solely due to the results of certain demographics. If said demographics scored better on it, you would've never heard about this test.

Third off, the sports argument does not work whatsoever. Who gets a spot on the teams is determined by who is better at the sport. That's fair. The same can't be said for teachers in NY who have to take a literacy test that not only cannot be shown to select good teachers from bad, it cannot even be shown to be a good test of literacy. That's not fair.

Lol the sport argument absolutely applies. It's ironic the only people complaining about the test are the ones that aren't doing well in it. That's like guys complaining that they didn't make the team because the drills the coach made them do weren't true indicators of good players from the bad ones.

Fourth, they aren't saying that the test or even the test results are racist. Again, the test is itself just a set of questions which are very unlikely to be overtly racist in any way. The fact that White and Asian people do better on the test is also not racist.

Yes they are, that's just about exactly what they're saying in the article. At one part that I cited earlier the person flat out says they want a larger minority demographic pretty much regardless of qualifications to reflect the student body.

What they are saying is that using test results that do not separate good candidates from bad candidates AND that disproportionately favor people of some races is racist. Either of those two things individually are not racist by themselves, you can't understand the argument being made without considering both of those things simultaneously.

So in other words the test favors whites and asians because they score higher on it, and therefore it's racist.

As an example, suppose I administered a literacy test to fill up my basketball team. The test doesn't separate good basketball players from bad ones, it's just a test. And as it so happens people of some given race do worse on the test than others. Is the test racist? No. Is the fact that some races do better on the test racist? Still no. Is the fact that I'm using a test to fill a basketball team, that I know some races do better on than other races, and that I know isn't a test that determines who is better at basketball, racist? I'd say yes.

This is what you call a false equivalence, I'm actually dumbfounded that you made such a comparison. In basketball you wouldn't ever administer a literacy test because it has no place on the court and would do jack **** to prove the worthiness of the players. However, in academics that same literacy test plays a much different and way more important role, it actually does help determine the teachers capabilities as an educator! The equivalence for a literacy test in the field of basketball would be a physical test for each of the players capabilities on the court, and if you do that then you'd absolutely fill your team with certain races that you know would do better than others. You'd do this not because you're racist, but because you know that they are the most qualified.

[Theodore]

What we have here is that some people believe in equality of opportunity, while others believe in equality of outcome. The latter is not going to happen. Certain groups on average do better than others in certain fields, that we all know.

[-Kev-]

This reminds me of the 7 white NYPD captains who sued the city because the promotional exam to lieutenant was too hard and asked unfair questions. They won.

Something like 6.8% of captains pass that test.