From a letter to the editor in _Teacher Magazine_, 1996 from Monty Neil, an 
associate director of FairTest in Cambridge, MA.
In his letter, Monty responds to an article that had appeared previously in 
_Teacher Magazine_ regarding California's CBEST, a test of basic skills which 
teacher candidates must pass in order to be certified.  Since we have also 
spent some time discussing this article in this echo, I thought I would offer 
up some of the comments from the letter.
"Though the story questioned the academic qualifications of some of those who 
did not pass the CBEST, many graduates of "elite" universities have failed 
it.  
For example, in the 1991-92 school year, 11 percent of the 749 graduates of 
the 
University of California at Berkeley who took the test for the first time did 
not pass.  Is it really plausible that Berkeley graduated more than 75 
students 
who cannot perform at what the state claims is merely a 10th grade level?"
Monty goes on to categorize the reading part of the test as biased - one 
section on lighthouses, for example, is criticized as being culturally biased 
(not many lighthouses in inner-city ghettos) and another reading selection on 
fruit juices is criticized for being more of a question of logic than of 
reading skills.  Monty supports his contention that the CBEST is culturally 
biased by reporting on some studies done by the Educational Testing Service 
(the company which wrote the CBEST) in the 1970's in which they were able to 
produce tests on which minority candidates scored higher than whites.
Monty further criticizes the CBEST for its difficult math questions and it's 
poor selection of writing topics.  He felt that both were irrelevant to most 
of 
the test takers and the time restraints may cause undue pressure.  He further 
argues that minority candidates taking the CBEST are more than likely to have 
come from better schools and better environments than the average minority 
child, so it is arguable that the discrepancy between scores for whites and 
scores for minorities are not based on the level of education received.
In closing, Monty states,
"Students, parents, and taxpayers deserve high-quality teachers.  But 
reducing 
the definition of high-quality to the ability to pass a test does not protect 
or serve the public interest; it merely perpetuates the latest excuse for 
racial exclusion - that test scores equal merit."
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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