Opinion ID: 324656
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: policies and practices affecting faculty and staff

Text: 57 The district court found the Boston school system segregated as to faculty, and staff, as well as to students. Although we deal with it last, we do not view it as the least significant aspect of the district court's opinion. Such segregation '. . . (is) among the most important indicia of a segregated system'. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 402 U.S. 1, 18, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 1277, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971). Segregative policies with respect to faculty and staff violate the Constitution independently of the segregation of pupils. Rogers v. Paul, 382 U.S. 198, 200, 86 S.Ct. 358, 15 L.Ed.2d 265 (1965); Bradley v. School Bd. of City of Richmond, 382 U.S. 103, 86 S.Ct. 224, 15 L.Ed.2d 187 (1965); Green v. County School Bd., 391 U.S. 430, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968); United States v. Montgomery County Bd. of Educ., 395 U.S. 225, 89 S.Ct. 1670, 23 L.Ed.2d 263 (1969); Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., supra. 58 The district court found that most of the black teachers in the Boston school system were teaching in schools whose student population was over 50 percent black. In 1972--1973 68 percent of the black teachers were concentrated in the 59 schools (29 percent of the total) which were majority-black. 379 F.Supp. at 459. Further, 81 schools (40.3 percent) had never had a black teacher, and 35 others (17.4 percent) had had only one black teacher i any year since 1967--1968 (the earliest year for which figures were put in evidence). All 19 black administrators were assigned to mine majority-black schools during 1972--1973, and the five black principals were assigned to schools ranging from 66 percent to 97 percent black. While no school had a faculty which was more than 50 percent black, that fact is hardly significant in light of the fact that blacks constituted only 5.4 percent of the permanent teaching staff. 23 59 The district court attributed the allocation of black teachers to black schools to three factors: defendants' policy of honoring requests by principals and headmasters for assignment of black teachers to their schools; defendants' transfer policy which allocation vacant positions in order of seniority; and the high proportion of provisional teachers among the black faculty in the school system. 24 The three factors are interrelated. When a position becomes vacant at a school, it is given to the most senior teacher wishing to transfer to it. If not filled by a transfer, the vacant position is offered to a certified teacher on the eligible list of applicants who have completed the screening process. If no certified teacher fills the vacancy, a noncertified provisional is hired. Thus, the most desirable teaching positions have been occupied by the most senior teachers, the least desirable by the less senior teachers, the provisionals getting the residue. Positions in identifiably black schools have been regarded as less desirable. Thirty nine transfer requests were granted in 1971 and 1972 for teachers wishing to leave majority black schools to go to majority white schools. None went the other way. Since only about one percent of teachers in the school system in the early 1960's were black, and many of the black teachers were provisionals, a very small number of black teachers were in a position to transfer to those teaching positions deemed most desirable. Although the Superintendent had the power to make or deny transfers for the good of the school system, and could have utilized this power to balance the distribution of black teachers, the district court found that he had not done so. The personnel department did, however, seek to honor the requests of school principals and headmasters that black teachers be assigned to their districts, a policy which had a segregative effect. 60 Defendants contend that black teachers' commitment to the education of black children, and the need of black children for black adult role models justified the concentration of black teachers in majority-black schools. As to the first contention the district court, after first noting the absence of evidence of any special interest on the part of blacks for such assignments, observed that the constitutional ban on segregation could not in any eveny yield to the desires to black teachers or parents. As to the second contention, the court found no systematic inquiry or empirical data to support it, and no evidence that this concept played any part in matching the races of teacher and pupils. Our own review of the record entirely supports the district court. 61 The result of defendants' practices was not only to concentrate most black teachers in black schools, but also to place in those schools a lower proportion of experienced teachers and a higher proportion of provisionals. We do not understand defendants to dispute these findings. 62 The district court also found that defendants discriminated with respect to hiring and promotion. In 1970--1971, 3.5 percent of the professional staff in the Boston school system was black. As we noted at the beginning of this section of the opinion, in 1972--1973 all of the black administrators in the school system were assigned to predominantly black schools. Promotions to administrative positions were granted on the basis of a 'rating' system which gave up to 600 points for credentials and up to 200 points on the basis of a personal interview. 760 points were necessary for a candidate to be 'rated'. Two prerequisites were a score of at least 70 percent on an essay examination administered by the board of examiners, and four to six years employment in a permanent position in the school system. Lists of candidates 'rated' for a particular position were compiled every three years, effective for three years. The effect of the requirement of four to six years' experience in a permanent position, and of the three year duration of the 'rated' lists was to imbed in the administrative staff previous discrimination in the hiring of black teachers. 25 The district court concluded that, at least by 1970, defendant were aware of this fact. 26 63 Until 1968 candidates for permanent teaching positions in the Boston school system were required to score 70 percent or better on the Boston Teachers Examination. Between 1968 and 1970, candidates were permitted to use either a Boston Teachers Examination score, or an equivalent score (560) on the National Teacher Examinations (NTE) prepared by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). After 1970 all candidates were required to take the NTE. 27 Those candidates achieving the requisite score were then ranked according to a composite score which factored in the results of an interview, the candidate's credentials and the test score. This composite score, the district court found, almost always corresponded to the test score, the interview and the candidate's credentials having no practical effect on the candidate's ranking. Defendants were aware that blacks tended to score lower than whites on the NTE, that exclusive reliance on NTE scores for hiring purposes either through the use of a 'cutoff' score, or by ranking according to scores was discouraged by ETS and had the effect of discriminating against blacks, and that the NTE has never been shown to have substantial predictive validity (high test scores do not indicate ability to teach). 379 F.Supp. at 464. 28 64 In Castro v. Beecher, 459 F.2d 725, 732 (1st Cir. 1972), we held that 65 '(t)he public employer must . . . in order to justify the use of a means of selection shown to have a racially disproportionate impact, demonstrate that the means is in fact substantially related to job performance. It may not, to state the matter another way, rely on any reasonable version of the facts, but must come forward with convincing facts establishing a fit between the qualification and the job.' 66 The district court was fully supported by the evidence in concluding that defendants' use of the NTE had a racially disproportionate impact, and that no showing was made that the NTE was 'substantially related to job performance'. Walston v. County School Board of Nansemond County, Va., 492 F.2d 919 (4th Cir. 1974); Baker v. Columbus Municipal Separate School Dist., 329 F.Supp. 706, 714--715 (N.D.Miss.1971); see also Boston Chapter, N.A.A.C.P. v. Beecher, 504 F.2d 1017 (1st Cir. 1974). 67 Quite apart from its independent significance, defendants' use of the NTE adds another strand to the fabric which binds the elements of this case together. The discriminatory hiring practices, segregative assignment and transfer policies, and the promotion system which perpetuated in administrative positions the effects of discriminatory hiring, have further combined to buttress the segregated nature of the school system. Their cumulative effect was to isolate black students, black teachers and black administrators in a limited number of schools, thereby denying to those students the equal educational opportunity to which they are constitutionally entitled. Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., supra; United States v. Montgomery County Bd. of Educ., supra. Faculty segregation, which is uniquely amenable to the control of school authorities, Kelly v. Guinn, 456 F.2d 100, 107 (9th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 413 U.S. 919, 93 S.Ct. 3048, 37 L.Ed.2d 1041 (1973), is a significant element in a racially discriminatory system which must be '. . . eliminated root and branch'. Green v. County School Bd. of New Kent County, 391 U.S. 430, 438, 88 S.Ct. 1689, 20 L.Ed.2d 716 (1968). 68 Moreover, as the district court properly found, the result of defendants' policies as to transfer, assignment, and placement of provisional teachers was to allocate to the schools attended by most black children the least experienced and least credentialed teachers, and to cause a rate of faculty turnover at predominantly black schools far higher than that at white schools. We affirm the district court's conclusion that these policies operated to deny to plaintiffs the equal education to which they are entitled. 29