Dive Brief:

• On Friday, Federal District Judge Kimba M. Wood ruled in favor of New York state's new teacher literacy exam, saying it does not discriminate against minority candidates.
• The original lawsuit alleged that the test, which is required to receive a license in the state, was biased again minority candidates; passing rates for Hispanic and black teaching candidates were, on average, 20% lower or more than white candidates.
• Thanks to prior court rulings, officials must prove that employment exams that have disproportionate passing rates actually measure the skills needed to do the job; in the case of New York’s certification test, Judge Wood ruled that the officials had adequately done so.

Dive Insight:

The lack of diversity in the American teaching force has made its way into the national conversation, as minority students now make up a majority of the public school population. Meanwhile, more than 80% of teachers are white. Advocates for a more diverse teaching force say that the lack of diversity hampers teachers' ability to adequately prepare students and can increase discrimination if teachers can't relate to students. They also say it creates a deficit of role models for minority students.

Judge Wood had previously tossed out two New York state licensing exams, saying that they did discriminate against minority candidates or did not adequately measure the skills required to do the job. Those decisions resulted in claims from about 4,000 New York City teacher candidates who did not pass those tests and did not receive postings. The state has included a hold-harmless period with the current exam, during which students can prove their literacy skills with coursework instead of test scores. That lasts until next summer. After that, teacher candidates will have to pass the new exam, along with three others, in order to receive a license.