A class action lawsuit brought on behalf of 3,500 to 5,000 teachers of color in Federal Court against the New York City Board of Education and the New York State Education Department has been dismissed.
The lawsuit, brought before a federal judge, alleged that the NYC certification process requiring teachers to be tested is unconstitutional because the tests do not accurately measure ability or predict classroom success and were therefore not necessary for teaching positions. Therefore, since Black and Latino applicants failed the test at a much higher rate, the tests had a “disparate impact” on these groups and were discriminatory and illegal.
But the judge found that the tests did not meet the test for the legal definition of “disparate impact” because the tests had a “manifest relationship” to the duties of classroom teaching.