George,

As a member of the Court of Appeals that upheld the decision of New Haven officials to make no promotions of any firefighters because the test they took was probably biased, Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination will undoubtedly bring that New Haven case to the forefront once again. Several weeks ago I posted some information about that test.

In that posting, I gave examples of the type of questions used in that test. Much of the test was just like the SAT. What a SAT type of test has to do with the ability to lead firefighters (as a lieutenant or captain) escapes me. As we know, much of the SAT is based on interpreting obscure and arcane passages by picking the “correct” multiple choice answer. This is a skill developed by college-prep students in good high schools and by those who take special courses to train for the SAT. Anyone who is not used to taking this type of test would find the reading comprehension example question from the New Haven test (shown in my posting) quite challenging.

The New Haven test also included the usual math word problems. None of the problems were remotely related to mathematical problems that one might encounter in fighting a fire or maintaining fire trucks.

There were questions that presented personal interaction situations and asked how these situations should be dealt with. This part of the test is relevant to being a leader in situations where citizens must be dealt with appropriately. However, the “correct” answers to a number of the questions posed were based on the life experiences of the college educated, middle class whites who wrote the questions. A clear bias.

Try answering the example questions I posted. You should do well if you did well on the SAT’s. You, therefore, could be a lieutenant or captain in any fire department using this test. No questions on the test had anything to do with how to fight a fire, so you need not worry about lack of knowledge of firefighting.

Do you think New Haven officials were right in not using the results of this test to determine who should be promoted? Do you agree that the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals (that Sonia Sonomayor serves on) was correct in upholding the New Haven officials?

David RePass (Electronic mail, May 27, 2009)