On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 5:24 PM, Judah McAuley<[email protected]> wrote: > > I understand your point. But the question is how the law is written. > Which is a better approach: do we try and analyze the content of the > each test and try to somehow neutrally determine whether it is biased > or do we look at the outcome of the test and judge based off of its > implementation? > > I don't know the specifics of the New Haven test. But I can see a > situation where I would look at a test and not think anything of it > because I'm a white dude who is really good at standardized testing, > whereas it might be rather incomprehensible to someone not of that > background in spite of the fact that we aren't trying to test how good > we are at standardized tests. > > Why were minorities passing this test at a much lower rate given > roughly equivalent experience? I got no clue. But is it unreasonable > to say that the test if flawed if two groups which should perform > roughly the same are not, even if you don't know the fundamental cause > of the discrepancy? It wasn't like they said that the white dudes were > going to take a different, harder test. They just said that test must > not be a good one if people who ought to be passing are not when the > only obvious reason is racial background. > >
Only obvious reason does not mean only reason. It is also entirely possible that all the non-whites who took the test were idiots or maybe did not prepare as much because they knew that they might be needed to fill a quota. I can understand the Navajo/pizza explanation in that specific case. But if a Navajo and a white guy have been working at a pizza place for 3 years and the Navajo still can't answer the question, than odds are its because he's an idiot and has nothing to do with being a Najavo. -- Scott Stroz --------------- The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. - Thomas Jefferson http://xkcd.com/386/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:299242 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
