Houston's black firefighters say city's exam for higher ranks is prejudiced against black people because it's a written exam, and studies show...

[Terminator]

Seven black firefighters are suing the city, contending that the Houston Fire Department’s test for officer promotions adversely affects blacks.
“This is systemic discrimination,” said the firefighters’ attorney, Dennis Thompson. “Selection rates for African-Americans are abysmally smaller than for white candidates.”
City Council on Wednesday delayed consideration of a request by the city attorney’s office to spend up to $197,000 on an outside law firm to defend the city against the federal lawsuit, which was filed in August. The council is expected to take up the request next week.
Firefighters trying to attain the rank of captain and above in the Houston Fire Department must take a 100-question multiple-choice test. Numerous studies show that blacks as a group do less well on high-stakes tests, Thompson said. He said fire departments should use cognitive tests only as a pass-fail benchmark and also should focus on performance exercises and other criteria.
“We don’t do as well on these multiple-choice tests,” said Capt. Otis Jordan, president of the Houston Black Firefighters Association. Jordan and the HBFA are not part of the suit. “I compare fighting a fire, riding an apparatus, to playing football. Your best athlete might not be the straight-A student.”
HFD has about 4,200 firefighters and paramedics. Roughly 700 are black, Jordan said.
Senior Assistant City Attorney Timothy Higley declined to comment on the substance of the lawsuit, but he said the case was complex.
“It’s all about the testing system in the Fire Department, so it’s going to require quite a bit of analysis,” Higley said. “Analysis about the validity of the testing program (and) whether the testing program is valid in the sense that it tests people for what is necessary in order to be (an officer).”
Kevin Michael Foster, an education anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education, agreed that research has demonstrated a test score gap between blacks and whites. There are several theories about why, but a primary explanation has to do with minority students disproportionately receiving inferior educations compared to whites, he said.
“If you are African-American, there is a greater likelihood that throughout your academic career you have been taught by teachers of less experience, you have been taught in settings of low-performing schools,” Foster said.
During standardized tests, minorities are also vulnerable to performance anxieties that stem from cultural stereotypes, Foster said. The result, he said, is that historically marginalized groups often do worse on tests, especially “high stakes” tests that affect one’s livelihood or future life path.
System adjusted in 2005

While officer promotions once heavily emphasized the written test, HFD’s system was adjusted in 2005 as part of a collective bargaining agreement, said Jeffrey Caynon, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 341. There has been only one testing cycle since the change, he added.
The new system ranks candidates based on a 122-point system: 100 points possible from the multiple-choice test, and other points awarded based on seniority, college or graduate education, and level of state fire certification. When vacancies occur, candidates are promoted from the top of the list. Promotions in the lower ranks still use the old system of 100 points for a written test and 10 points for seniority, for a maximum of 110, according to Assistant Fire Chief Bill Barry.
The lawsuit seeks promotions to captain or senior captain for the plaintiffs, back pay and damages.

[altonc27]

IDK cuz with me being black and all I do fairly well on cognitive testing....Its like the SAT, everything is biased but i did well on that also....I hate things like this because it makes the black pop appear stupid and since a few cannot pass they try to sue for a new test that they probably will fail also.

[BigDawg]

So if they win and get a different test and done do well on that.........then what?? Do they continue till they get a test they can win at??? At least this is a multiple choice test, STUDY for it!!!

[TXCharlie]

[213th]

blah blah blah blah “Selection rates for African-Americans are abysmally smaller than for white candidates.” blah blah blah blah

HFD has about 4,200 firefighters and paramedics. Roughly 700 are black, Jordan said.

Now I'm not a math genius....but 700 out of 4200.... 16.67% black firefighters, I'd have to say that you are going to see a majority of white candidates promoted. After all, they make up more then 80% of the dept. I'd like to think that any group of people with an 80%plus majority in numbers would also have the majority of best suited people for the position.

[pgg]

IDK cuz with me being black and all I do fairly well on cognitive testing....Its like the SAT, everything is biased but i did well on that also....I hate things like this because it makes the black pop appear stupid and since a few cannot pass they try to sue for a new test that they probably will fail also.

I have to agree with you. It sounds like some of these people that are suing didn't study for the test and are now trying to find a way to get promoted without having to take it. You said yourself that you took tests without a problem. I think the issue here is study habits and some people wanted to gain advancement for nothing.

[Retdetsgt]

My black friends on my dept had no problem taking the tests and several ended up command, one making chief. Only the dumb ones complained about the testing. We all go to the same schools now and have the same exposure to learning. I just can't buy the biased idea.

The sad thing is they "fixed things" so some could be promoted. My last day at work I read the new Sgt's list and #1 was a black guy who is illiterate, seriously. He had to take the written entrance exam three times to pass and only did it when his wife was assigned to personnel.... There is no way he could have passed the written test for Sgt. It made all the people of all races that worked hard to get on the list look bad.

As far as the SAT test, I did pretty good on it when I was 17. But when I looked at my daughter's sample questions 25 years later, they scared the hell out of me. Which makes me think that how well you paid attention is school is pretty important in how you do. 25 years out of high school made me forget a lot of what I evidently knew when I got out.