Opinion ID: 3204484
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Text: motor vehicle is desired. In addition to completing the question and answer component of the examination, applicants listed on the E&E rating sheet their relevant work experience, their degrees and certifications in certain areas, their teaching experience, and any licenses they held.5 Points were assigned based on the listed education and experience. For example, applicants could receive up to fifteen points in recognition of their educational attainment, with an associate's degree providing up to three points and a doctorate providing up to twelve. After collecting and scoring the exams, HRD provided the municipalities with a list of passing test-takers eligible for promotion, ranked in order of their test scores. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 31, § 25. Each of the municipal defendants in this case selected candidates in strict rank order based on the list they received from HRD.6 5 The Officers point out that the same E&E sheet was used to identify candidates for promotion among Massachusetts firefighters in 2010. 6 State law permitted a certain amount of flexibility for - 13 - Because many officers achieved at least the minimum passing score of seventy and there were relatively few openings for promotion to sergeant, all of those who were promoted scored well above the minimum in both 2005 and 2008. In 2005, 9 of the 224 Black and Hispanic candidates who took the exam were promoted, whereas 57 of the 401 other candidates were promoted. In 2008, 1 of the 213 Black and Hispanic test-takers was promoted, whereas 25 of the 291 other candidates were promoted. The average scores for those who the statisticians called minority test takers fell below the average scores for the non-minority test takers by 6.4 points in 2005 and 6.6 points in 2008.