US to weigh whether test results signal unfairness to minorities

By Cindy Rodriguez, Globe Staff, 11/24/99

The US Department of Education plans to analyze MCAS test results to
determine if the exam discriminates against Latino and black children,
a step that education specialists say could ultimately lead to a court
challenge.

''If we determine there is an adverse impact on those students, we
would ask the state education department to work with us to make
determinations as to why these disparities exist,'' said Rodger
Murphey, a spokesman for the US Education Department's Office for Civil
Rights.

At the same time, several legal groups in Massachusetts have begun
meeting to decide whether they plan to challenge the test on
discrimination grounds.

''I got a call last night from an attorney who said, `I'm thinking of
MCAS. Are you thinking about it?''' said Roger Rice, executive
director of the nonprofit Multicultural Education, Training, and
Advocacy Center.

Rice said representatives from four legal organizations have met
twice to talk about what direction to take, and say that the US
Education Department's request for information about the disparity
gives them hope for intervention.

State Board of Education Chairman James A. Peyser said late
yesterday that, despite not being aware of the MCAS review by the US
Department of Education, he encouraged it.

''Obviously we more than welcome anybody to look at the test and
analyze its validity,'' Peyser said. ''I do believe it's a fair test and
I certainly don't see anything in it that is culturally biased in any
way.''

Peyser said a bias committee reviews and tests all questions on the
test to make sure it does not create disparities between different
groups of students.

Peyser has said that he hopes the MCAS results will lead to
districts improving efforts to boost minority test scores.

But specialists say it is clear that the Massachusetts
Comprehensive Assessment System will adversely impact Latinos, blacks,
Native Americans, and some Asian groups, as well as poor whites, and
is therefore discriminatory.

Earlier this month, the Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino
Community Development and Public Policy at UMass-Boston released the
first study that broke down MCAS test results by ethnicity and race.
It showed that in the 1998 test, Latinos and blacks failed at a rate
twice that of whites.

The study showed 83 percent of Latinos and 80 percent of blacks
failed the 10th-grade math exam, which will be a requirement to
graduate high school in 2003. The results alarmed many, who fear it
will result in a majority of frustrated Latino and black students
dropping out of school.

Ismael Ramirez Soto, a lawyer and dean of the College of Public and
Community Service at UMass-Boston, said if it is proven the state was
aware of the disparate impact it has on Latinos and blacks it would
constitute deliberate action.

''In other words, if I know that the results of requiring the test
to graduate will result in an outrageous number of Latinos and
African-Americans flunking, and they still require it, then the state
can't say it didn't know,'' Ramirez said.

''They can't say they are not aware. They are aware now. Now, we
need to see what affirmative steps will be taken. If not, then we have
to start asking ourselves if this is intentional discrimination.''

The US Department of Education already has challenged
state-mandated tests in Ohio and Texas. In Ohio, it required the state
school system in 1994 to focus more attention on minority students,
offering a range of solutions, including tutorial programs. The Texas
case is being reviewed by a federal judge.

Bob Schaeffer, public education director at FairTest, a
Cambridge-based group which is opposed to MCAS, said the Gaston study
proves what educators throughout the nation already know: that
minorities and poor children fare worse on standardized tests for
myriad reasons.

Schaeffer said now that the state has the statistics that show the
disparity, it needs to quickly find ways to improve the test scores of
minorities. If not, he said, the US Education Department will have a
strong case against the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Others in the field said a possible legal challenge on the test is
a ''vague idea in people's head,'' according to Tim Sindelar, senior
attorney with the Disability Law Center.

''There are lawyers who have expressed concern about the way the
scores are coming out and that way the test is administered in terms
of students with disabilities,'' he said. ''I would say there are a
number of people individually that are thinking about it.''

Ramirez, of UMass-Boston, said ''One of the questions we have now
is how many of our kids are being tested on things they haven't been
taught in the first place. How many are taking the math that is on the
test?''

He said the state Education Department should not have been so
quick to require students pass the test to graduate high school.

''Why the big rush?'' Ramirez asked. ''Let's avoid penalizing the
kids.''

Mac Daniel of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 11/24/99. ©
Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.