Test for Teachers Called Biased in Texas Suit
AUSTIN, Tex. — The Texas State Teachers Assn. and seven of its minority members filed a federal suit Thursday alleging that the state’s basic skills test for teachers is racially biased.
The suit, filed in federal court in Tyler, names as plaintiffs seven teachers who failed the Texas Examination of Current Administrators and Teachers, or TECAT, which more than 200,000 Texas educators took on March 10.
Only 1.1% of the state’s white teachers failed, contrasted with 18% of blacks and 6% of Latinos, prompting the association to pronounce the test discriminatory.
Statewide, 97.7% of all teachers passed.
Association President Charles Beard said the results indicate the test is racially biased.
“The TECAT has obviously had a disparate impact on different classes of people, leading us to believe that it, like many standardized tests, is inherently biased, and therefore produces an illegal, discriminatory result,” he said.
Education Commissioner W. N. Kirby conceded that standardized tests usually show disparity along racial lines but insisted with “absolute certainty” that racial bias is not a factor in the test.
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