Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990 TAG: 9006220183
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Salem Del. Steve Agee called on Gov. Douglas Wilder to stop the "racial manipulation" of VEC test results and to notify anyone who has taken the tests that their results did not reflect their "true performance."
Agee called the practice of grouping test results according to race and giving segregated percentile rankings "intentional publicly funded racial discrimination . . . regularly practiced by an agency" of the state.
Agee said Wilder should stop the practice immediately because it violates his administration's first executive order, which bans racial discrimination.
In Richmond, a group of Republican legislators called on the VEC to at least notify those who are tested and prospective employers that the test score rankings are adjusted by race.
"The first executive order signed by Gov. Doug Wilder on the day he took office was a promise to all Virginians that their state government would not discriminate on the basis of race," said Del. Frank D. Hargrove, R-Hanover, chairman of the GOP legislative caucus.
"We are afraid that the Virginia Employment Commission has not gotten the word," he said at a news conference.
The employment agency measures test scores for job applicants against the scores in their racial grouping. Employers are told of the scoring method but receive the percentile ranking within the group, rather than raw scores.
"If two people get the same score, the white applicant would receive a rank in the 47th percentile while the black applicant would score in the 87th percentile," Agee said. "And the applicant would never have a way of knowing that his score reflected that kind of grouping."
Moreover, Agee said that prospective employers "unless they are real smart" would not be aware that test scores are being ranked by racial groups. The VEC does not release raw scores for comparison, only the rankings.
In his letter to Wilder, Agee said the VEC is "purposely falsifying test results."
Agee said he does not view the VEC system as an appropriate means of affirmative action. Job applicants and employers should receive an accurate accounting of ability from the tests and "beyond that, an employer is free to make any decision about hiring policies," he said.
Under the VEC system, employers don't know an applicant's ability "because the fundamentals you need to make the decision are false," Agee said.
Steve Haner, director of the GOP caucus, predicted the VEC will stop using the scoring method if it is publicized.
Wilder told reporters Thursday that he is studying the scoring procedure. "I'm just looking at it and evaluating it to see if it serves a need," he said.
The U.S. Department of Labor devised the scoring method in 1981 to deal with the problem of blacks, Hispanics and American Indians scoring lower than other racial groups on the employment test. Thirty-eight states have tried the scoring method in at least one local employment office, but Virginia and five other states use it statewide, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial criticizing the policy.
Nancy L. Munnikhuysen, the VEC's chief of marketing and public affairs, said the commission is waiting for a Labor Department decision expected in a few weeks on whether the scoring system should be continued.
She said the commission is considering the Republicans' suggestions. She said the raw scores are not released because they would show that the minorities scored lower.
The test was taken by nearly 37,000 of the 321,000 people who used VEC services in the year ending June 30, 1989. The VEC administers the test at the request of employers and job applicants, Munnikhuysen said.
Associated Press contributed some information for this story.
by CNB