Opinion ID: 347588
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Testing Program

Text: 116 Although only the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test for screening apprentice program candidates was in use before 1965, in August of that year, just after Title VII became effective, Stockham instituted an extensive testing program. The company adopted the Wonderlic Personnel Test for use in screening virtually all applicants for hourly jobs at Stockham, new hirees, employees seeking intra- and interdepartmental transfers and promotions, and individuals requesting selection for the apprentice program. The Wonderlic Test was employed at Stockham as a screening device until 1971. 117 The plaintiffs say that the district court erred in failing to find that Stockham's Wonderlic testing program was unlawful. The district court found: 118 Plaintiffs have not offered any competent evidence, direct or indirect that the Wonderlic test, as administered at Stockham in the period from 1965 through 1971, disqualified a disproportionate number of black applicants or employees. In the absence of evidence of a racially disproportionate impact, the defendant-employer was under no obligation to go forward and prove that the Wonderlic test, as administered during that period, was job-related. 119 394 F.Supp. at 498. The defendant concedes that the Wonderlic Test was never validated. Stockham did not offer evidence of the job-relatedness of the test, but as the Supreme Court observed in Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 1975, 422 U.S. 405, 425, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2375, 45 L.Ed.2d 280: 120 This burden arises, of course, only after the complaining party or class has made out a prima facie case of discrimination, i. e., has shown that the tests in question select applicants for hire or promotion in a racial pattern significantly different from that of the pool of applicants. 121 The primary issue here in relation to the Wonderlic Test is whether the plaintiffs produced sufficient evidence of the adverse impact of the test on black employees at Stockham. 122 The plaintiffs' evidence on the racial impact of the Wonderlic Test consists of five elements. First, on cross-examination Dr. Joan Haworth, the defendant's statistician, stated that in a computer study she conducted at Stockham's request she found that black employees at Stockham scored lower than white employees. 35 Second, E. F. Wonderlic & Associates, the developers and publishers of the Wonderlic Test, undertook a nationwide study on Negro norms and concluded that over a wide range of educational levels, jobs, and geographic areas there is a stable differential in black and white scores on the test with blacks scoring approximately eight points lower than whites. 36 See 394 F.Supp. at 482. Third, the plaintiffs produced expert testimony that blacks tend to perform less well on general intelligence tests, such as the Wonderlic, than whites do. Fourth, the Wonderlic Test has been condemned in a number of cases for having an adverse impact on blacks. 37 Fifth, the plaintiffs' evidence showed that disproportionately few blacks were selected for jobs or training programs for which high Wonderlic scores were required. 38 123 The district court rejected the plaintiffs' evidence on the adverse impact of the Wonderlic Test for a variety of reasons. See 394 F.Supp. at 482-83. The court's principal reason for this finding was that the plaintiffs failed to present any evidence to the effect that the average score of blacks at Stockham on the Wonderlic Test was any lower from the average score of whites except for the testimony of Dr. Haworth, which the court concluded was incomplete and therefore insufficient. In addition, the court found: 124 Plaintiffs failed to relate any supposed difference in test performance by blacks and whites to the Wonderlic cutoff scores actually utilized by Stockham from 1965 to 1971. 125 394 F.Supp. at 483. 126 The court gave too much weight to the plaintiffs' failure to offer evidence on the actual scores black and white employees at Stockham achieved on the Wonderlic Test. 39 In Pettway v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 494 F.2d at 221, we concluded that the plaintiffs had shown that testing and educational requirements had an adverse impact on black employees seeking promotions with evidence that fewer black employees were promoted between 1965 and 1971. Here the plaintiffs presented substantial statistical data on the gross disparities between the number of black and white workers in jobs requiring higher Wonderlic scores. 40 This Court recognized in Watkins v. Scott Paper Co., 530 F.2d at 1185: 127 (A) statistical showing of black exclusion from a particular kind of job establishes a prima facie case of discrimination. 128 See also Vulcan Society of the New York City Fire Department, Inc. v. Civil Service Commission, 2 Cir. 1973, 490 F.2d 387, 393, in which Judge Friendly rejected any requirement that the racially disproportionate impact of employment tests be proved with complete mathematical certainty. 129 The plaintiffs' statistical evidence shows that in three kinds of positions for which high Wonderlic scores were required black employees were greatly underrepresented. Although 66 percent of all production and maintenance workers were black, in November 1970, only 4 percent of employees working in jobs with a JC 9 through 13 rating were black. 41 In addition, as we have already observed, 42 the statistics show that 96 percent of all white employees at Stockham were in jobs requiring a score of 15 or higher while only 13 percent of the black workers were in such jobs. Even more strikingly, there were no black apprentices in March 1971 when use of the Wonderlic Test was discontinued. Finally, 56 percent of the entire work force at Stockham is black although only 7 percent of the clerical workers were black in 1971. These statistics show that during the period the Wonderlic Test was administered blacks were totally excluded from the apprenticeship program, were substantially excluded from clerical jobs, and were disproportionately excluded from jobs classified in JC 9 through 13. 130 This evidence, considered with Dr. Haworth's general finding that blacks scored lower on the Wonderlic Test at Stockham, the results of the Negro norms study by Wonderlic & Associates, and the expert testimony that general intelligence tests such as the Wonderlic generally have disparate effect on blacks establishes that the plaintiffs met their initial burden of showing that the Wonderlic Personnel Test had an adverse impact on black employees at Stockham. The district court erred in reaching the contrary conclusion. Given the adverse effect, the burden of persuasion shifted to the company to show the job relatedness of the test. Pettway v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 494 F.2d at 222. Stockham offered no evidence to satisfy that burden. As a result, the plaintiffs are entitled to equitable relief. 43 131 Alternatively, apart from the issue whether the test itself had a discriminatory effect on blacks, the plaintiffs and the amicus EEOC argue that the way in which the Wonderlic test was administered with a dual scoring system for inter- and intradepartmental transfers, constituted an artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barrier to employment opportunities condemned by the Supreme Court in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. at 431, 91 S.Ct. 849. As we have already discussed, 44 Stockham required employees transferring to jobs within their own departments to achieve the minimum score designated for the job; whereas, employees transferring interdepartmentally were required to achieve the higher norm score for the position. As the EEOC points out, the effect was that black employees who had been excluded from certain departments on account of race were required to score higher on the screening test than whites who never suffered such discrimination. Thus, this requirement tended to restrict blacks to departments to which they had been discriminatorily assigned. The requirement was arbitrary, in that an employee who achieved the minimum score was deemed qualified to perform the job. Further, if the purpose of the requirement was to adjust for the greater intradepartmental experience of employees already working in the department, that rationale is questionable. Stockham has no lines of progression among jobs; hence, experience in one job is not seen as necessary for satisfactory performance in another. Intradepartmental experience could have been considered as a separate criterion with more accurate results than with an adjustment to scoring on a general intelligence test. 132 Finally, the company apparently recognized that there was only a minimal relationship between satisfactory job performance and high scoring on the Wonderlic Personnel Test; an employee performing well within a department was not required to achieve a high score to be selected for another job in that department. This fact may explain why Stockham did not attempt to show the job-relatedness of the Wonderlic test. This Court's conclusion in Pettway on a preferential bidding system applies equally well here: 133 The requirement that bids from within the craft departments be given initial, primary consideration must fail in light of the proof demonstrating that a large majority of black employees have been excluded from these departments. 134 Pettway v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 494 F.2d at 240. Therefore, the dual scoring system for the Wonderlic test, giving preference to employees transferring within departments, was unlawful even apart from the issue of the unlawfulness of the test itself.
135 The district court found that the Tabaka tests had been in use at Stockham since July 17, 1973. The court also concluded: 136 The Tabaka tests are actively considered in selection decisions; however, no employee has been disqualified on the basis of the Tabaka tests, even though some have failed to attain the failure probability score. 137 394 F.Supp. at 486. The plaintiffs, however, say that they were stymied in their efforts to collect information on whether the Tabaka tests adversely affect blacks because of the emphatic assertion of Stockham's employee testing manager that the Tabaka tests have not been used in any employment decisions. 138 The district court's finding that the Tabaka tests have been in use since July 17, 1973, is apparently based on the testimony of E. Reeves Sims, the company employee relations manager. We have concluded that the factual finding is clearly erroneous. Jack H. Adamson, whose direct responsibilities include Stockham's testing program, testified that the tests were administered only for the purpose of collecting data on their effect and not as part of employee selection decisions. 45 Therefore, we do not reach the question whether Stockham has succeeded in proving the job relatedness of the Tabaka tests. Instead, we remand that issue to the district court so that additional evidence can be taken. In more than three years since the trial, the company must have accumulated a substantial quantity of data. Such statistical information should be sufficient both for a determination of whether the Tabaka tests have an adverse impact on blacks and for augmentation of the validation study. 139 If the district court finds on remand that the Tabaka test has an adverse impact on blacks, then it should evaluate the defendant's proof of job relatedness in light of the Supreme Court's opinion in Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 45 L.Ed.2d 280. In addition, if the defendant continues to rely on the Tabaka concurrent criterion study as the basis for its assertion that the tests are job-related, the district court should consider whether the job analysis conducted by Victor Tabaka meets EEOC requirements specified in 29 C.F.R. § 1607.5(b)(3) and (4) and conforms with the professional standards of the American Psychological Association (APA). In United States v. City of Chicago, 7 Cir. 1977, 549 F.2d 415, 431, the Seventh Circuit applied the EEOC Guidelines and quoted the APA standards in emphasizing the importance of the quality of criteria chosen for criterion-related validity studies: 140 (T)he logic of criterion-related validity assumes that the criterion possess validity. All too often, tests are validated against any available criterion with no corresponding investigation of the criterion itself. The merit of a criterion-related validity study depends on the appropriateness and the quality of the criterion chosen . . . . Criterion-related validity studies based on the 'criterion at hand' chosen more for availability than for a place in a carefully reasoned hypothesis, are to be deplored. 141 As that court concluded, The entire rationale of a criterion-related study requires that the criterion with which the test results are compared be a good measure of job performance. Id. at 433. 142 Finally, in the event the district court should conclude that the Tabaka tests are job-related, the court should permit the plaintiffs to present evidence that alternative selection devices, without similarly undesirable racial effect, are available to the company. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. at 436, 95 S.Ct. 2362. We remand the issue of the lawfulness of the Tabaka tests to the district court.