The Principle of Testing Principals
LEVINE, NAOMI & COHEN, RICHARD
A FORMULA FOR PRESERVING The Principle of Testing Principals BY NAOMI LEVINE AND RICHARD COHEN A key issue in the dispute that touched off the 1968 New York City teachers' strike now threatens to...
...At the same time, there must be a more thorough and effective attempt at test validation...
...these questions simply test the accumulation of obscure information and the ability to memorize...
...These, the Board of Examiners says, its test is able to measure...
...Change for the sake of change is no more justified than rigid adherence to the status quo...
...The suit contends that these tests discriminate against blacks and Puerto Ricans...
...It is this short-answer section that has drawn the particular ire of the naacp Legal Defense and Education Fund...
...While these questions appear to be considerably more relevant to the responsibilities of school administrators than those cited earlier, experts might well disagree on the correct answers...
...A recent unanimous decision by the Supreme Court, written by Chief Justice Warren Burger and handed down last March 9, supports this position...
...To the surprise of many observers, the Chancellor of the New York City school system, Harvey B. Scribner, and the Board of Education have refused to contest the suit, leaving the Board of Examiners to support both the principle of testing and the principal's test...
...Is the Board of Examiners ready -- or able--to devise this new kind of test and place greater emphasis on predictive validity...
...and in setting written selection standards that may prove too inflexible for jobs where subjective qualities are so important...
...what is important, Justice Burger wrote, are "the consequences of the employment practice...
...The present litigation directly affects many Jews who are already New York City school principals and those teachers who have taken or plan to take tests for promotion to supervisory positions...
...Therefore, unless proof of the predictive validity of tests for supervisory jobs is furnished, all of them should be discontinued...
...But is polarization necessary...
...2. It would be equally wrong to continue the examinations in their present form...
...4. Provide data for additional growth and guidance of the pupil himself...
...Any eligible person may be interviewed by the local school board and hired on whatever basis the board may wish to consider...
...Naomi Levine and Richard Cohen are, respectively, the assistant and the associate executive director of the AmericanJewish Congress...
...Traditionally, he observes, the city has drawn two-thirds of its teachers from graduates of the City University-- where the percentage of black students is rising steadily...
...That such examinations be given once a year so that a large enough pool of qualified persons is continuously available for selection by the local community boards...
...2. Provide evidence for further curriculum planning...
...The possibilities for patronage and discrimination in the allocation of this $92-million payroll are enormous...
...Assuming blacks do about as well as whites, Degnan estimates that about half of them will become eligible for appointment...
...Although state certification may work well as the sole requirement in smaller communities, there are dangers in applying such an approach to large metropolitan areas...
...The school establishment will be divided, with the Chancellor and the Board of Education on one side and the Board of Examiners on the other...
...The mere ability to pass a written examination and charm a selection committee should not confer the right to be a school principal upon anyone...
...Traditionally, Jews have been among the strongest supporters of the merit system (and therefore of civil service) as the most effective way of preventing discrimination in public employment...
...What can be appraised is a lawyer's knowledge of torts, a doctor's knowledge of anatomy, a principal's knowledge of educational theory and practice...
...Professor Robert Thorndike of Columbia University, a universally recognized authority on testing, has endorsed the Board of Examiners' viewpoint...
...This, it is also observed, would have the additional effect of enlarging the talent pool by making it easier to recruit such personnel from outside New York...
...The Legal Defense Fund notes that there are only five black elementary school principals out of 622 in New York City, only two black high school principals out of 90, and only one Puerto Rican and four black junior high school principals out of 150...
...The largest component, it accounts for 60 of the total 100 points: 45 for essays dealing with the specific duties of a principal--teacher guidance, curriculum, extracurricular programs, meeting with parents, handling disturbed children, etc.--and 15 for 175-200 multiple-choice problems...
...measure only the ability to memorize esoteric facts...
...Is there a way to prevent head-on conflict...
...Neither a transcript, nor an evaluation of the candidate's academic record, nor even a personal reference is required...
...To retain the current examination procedures because "that's the way it's always been done," will not give us better administrators or better schools...
...Of course, there are risks in assigning to outside organizations the responsibilities that properly belong to public agencies and governmental bodies...
...That local community boards be required to put into writing their objective criteria for selecting principals from the lists, and that in no case shall sex, race, religion or national or ethnic origin be accepted as a standard...
...Other cities call only for state certification--merely a statement by an official of the college the candidate attended that he took education courses which "substantially meet the requirements of the State Board of Regents...
...The Examiners reply that the low percentage of black and Puerto Rican principals in New York is meaningless unless compared with the number of minority candidates tested...
...That there have been serious abuses and that whom you know rather than what you know still plays a major role in the hiring of principals from Yonkers to Yaphank cannot be denied...
...In New York City alone there are 3,700 supervisory positions in the public school system, each paying $20-30,000 per annum...
...And because so many principals and candidates to be principals are Jewish, black-Jewish tensions will rise to dangerous levels...
...An oft-repeated charge against the Board of Examiners is that its failure to recruit nationally has led to a pernicious "inbreeding," stultifying the city school system...
...Much more important, it would increase the number of black principals in the city school system by an impressive 1,250 per cent...
...New York and Buffalo are the only cities in the state to give examinations for supervisory positions in the public schools...
...As further cause for his optimism, Degnan cites an interesting statistic: Out of 2,100 persons who took the November '70 elementary school principal's examination, 300 were black...
...They arrived at this view after suffering long years of frustration themselves, and went on to play a significant role in establishing and broadening the range of the civil service examination...
...The Examiners categorically deny that the exam for principals is discriminatory...
...The Board of Examiners argues in rebuttal that predictive-validity studies are not the only acceptable form of test measurement and that its own content-validity studies have provided a legitimate check of the principals' and other examinations...
...They insist the test is a valid method of evaluating the ability and suitability of candidates for the position, and charge that the plaintiffs are interested not in changing the principals' test but in eliminating all civil service examinations for school personnel...
...The Examiners have now been instructed by the Court to provide such figures to the plaintiff...
...The Board of Examiners further notes that this sort of question appeared only on the examination for junior high school principal, and has been eliminated from the test for elementary school and high school principals...
...Nonetheless, if New Yorkers insist on seeing the problem as offering only two possible solutions--either to abolish tests altogether or to retain the examination procedure as is--the city will almost surely polarize again along the lines that divided it in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis: Black and Puerto Rican communities will close ranks against many teachers, supervisors and their unions, plus large segments of the white community...
...The inclusion of these questions is justified on the ground that an assistant principal has supervision over the curriculum in his school and must therefore have intimate knowledge of every subject taught...
...Although the entire examination procedure has been called into question (including the personal interview and the evaluation of a candidate's experience), the written test is at the root of the current controversy...
...A number is represented by 321 written in the base 4. Rewritten in the base 10, the number is: (1) 40 (2) 46 (3) 57 (4) 214 Select the word or word group nearest in meaning to the given word(s): prelect 1. discourse publicly 2. read ahead 3. choose tentatively 4. misrepresent The power to set margin requirements for stock purchases is given to the: 1. Federal Securities and Exchange Commission 2. Board of Governors of the Stock Exchange 3. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Commission 4. Secretary of the Treasury Such information, it is argued, has no significance in measuring a candidate's potential as an effective administrator...
...Written tests are mandatory in the State of New York for the practice of 153 trades and professions--from medicine to meat cutting--but not teaching...
...this is known as "content validity...
...To increase the validity of examinations for skills that do not readily lend themselves to measurement, testing experts today insist on a detailed description of the activities and responsibilities of the position, the relative importance of each, and the personality and professional characteristics that make for success...
...The record indicates that it is not...
...Typical of these are the following: The curriculum may best be defined as: 1. courses of study 2. educational materials 3. pupil experience 4. programs of study Recent studies of the way in which innovation in education occurs reveal that the most compelling factors are: 1. human (e.g., leadership) 2. monetary (e.g., per pupil cost) 3. temporary (e.g., time required for change) 4. supportive (e.g., personnel released for special service) The ultimate purpose in evaluating pupil progress and behavior is to: 1. Assist teachers in appraising pupils' work with them...
...A FORMULA FOR PRESERVING The Principle of Testing Principals BY NAOMI LEVINE AND RICHARD COHEN A key issue in the dispute that touched off the 1968 New York City teachers' strike now threatens to trigger new conflicts between parents and local school boards, teachers and parents, blacks and Jews: The city's method of appointing principals has been challenged in Federal court by the naacp Legal Defense and Education Fund, which seeks to enjoin the administering of any further examinations for licensing elementary school principals or other supervisory personnel...
...That the effectiveness of a candidate for principal ultimately be determined on the job, in some form of internship...
...There has been much criticism of the practice of principals and other supervisors teaching cram courses for the examination, at $400 per person...
...are not related to the requirements of the job...
...Perhaps, if each side would recognize what experience indicates is an essential and valid point in the other's case...
...The plaintiff claims that only "insiders" and applicants properly coached by insiders would know the "acceptable" answers...
...The Legal Defense Fund, going a step further, contends that unless it has been conclusively shown that performance on a test is related to performance on the job, the examination procedure should be deemed discriminatory on its face...
...Instead, the latest examination for elementary school principal (November 3, 1970) used short-answer problems relating to educational and administrative techniques, methods of instruction, etc...
...And in New York the position of the Jewish community, a significant source of teachers and administrators, adds a special dimension to the dispute...
...in establishing so large a pool that many eligible persons may never receive appointments...
...The brief presented to the court cites the following problems, taken from an examination for assistant principal in the junior high schools, as typical of the "irrelevant" material covered...
...And "the consequences" of the Board's existing "practice," declares the Legal Defense Fund's suit, are the infinitesimal number of blacks and Puerto Ricans in supervisory positions...
...From this analysis they try to develop a test that relates as closely as possible to the particular skills of the job...
...The small number of blacks and Puerto Ricans in supervisory positions in the New York schools, they say, is due to the fact that so few have had the education and experience to qualify for the examination...
...But the alternatives to these suggestions offer even greater risks...
...Nor is the answer the elimination of all written tests and their replacement by state certification...
...No examination can tell how good a comedian is, or even a lawyer or physician...
...While there are differences of opinion about the meaning or even the existence of "cultural bias" in testing, there appears to be growing acceptance of the idea that examinations are guilty until proved innocent...
...The Court stated that although Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prohibit testing, it does put the burden of proof upon the employer to show that the tests are clearly related to the job in question...
...Intent to discriminate is an irrelevant matter...
...Walter Degnan, president of the Council of Supervisory Associations, feels it is merely a matter of time--and not too long a time-before large numbers of blacks are on the lists of qualified principals and assistant principals...
...What is, after all, the difference between "courses of study" and "programs of study" as the definition of "curriculum...
...if few took the examination, then their small numbers in supervisory positions is not the fault of the examination...
...These figures (1.3 per cent black, 0.1 per cent Puerto Rican) are contrasted with the proportion in Los Angeles (8 per cent black, 1.7 per cent Mexican-American), Chicago (6.9 per cent black), Detroit (16.7 per cent black), and Philadelphia (16.7 per cent black) --all cities where competitive examinations are given...
...They are not indicative of superior intelligence, and are culturally biased to the extent that white middle-class Americans are the ones most likely to have been exposed to the information solicited...
...1. It would be wrong to eliminate the principal's examination...
...The Legal Defense Fund says it has not been able to obtain statistics on the number of blacks and Puerto Ricans who have taken these tests, or the percentage who passed or failed...
...3. Rate pupils' knowledge and skills...
...Thus, it would appear sensible to recommend: ?That future examinations be postponed until new tests are developed by an outside testing agency designed to assure maximum feasible validity...
...The issues here are critical, for at a time when urban public education is under severe attack they involve not only allegations of racial discrimination but the whole question of how to find the best qualified school leadership...
...Determining "predictive validity," comparing the score on the test with performance on the job, is a considerably longer process, but most experts believe it offers the most effective approach to devising tests free of cultural bias or irrelevancy...
...The Examiners reply that since all minority and low-income candidates are also college graduates, they have been exposed to the same education and culture as their white middle-class counterparts...
...and have never been properly validated...
...They must be redesigned to measure more accurately the special requirements of the jobs, those personality and leadership qualities that play so crucial a role in the school principal's success or failure...
...Thus it raises a very real bread-and-butter issue with the potential for renewing Negro-Jewish tensions...
...As a result, the Board of Examiners has now begun to offer free courses, many of them in black neighborhoods...
...This would demolish the argument that the examination is "culturally biased...
...Finally, the Examiners maintain that there is no valid method of testing performance skills...
Vol. 54 • May 1971 • No. 9
