This regulation says that on any employment test, the lowest scoring ethnic group better pass at a rate at least 80% as high as the highest scoring ethnic group.
The fashionable Advanced Placement tests provide us with a database to test the reasonableness of the rule that gives the Disparate Impact theory its teeth. As I mention in post below, blacks only pass AP tests at a per capita rate not Four-Fifths but One-Twentieth of the Asian rate.
But what about just those more elite students who bother to take AP tests? How reasonable is the Four-Fifths rule for them?
The gaps are smaller, but not a single AP exam would pass the EEOC's Four-Fifth's Rule, as the table below shows. (And many colleges require not just scores of 3, but 4s or 5s, which make the racial gaps substantially larger.)
Passing Rates | White | Asian | Black | Hispanic | Min / Max |
Total Exams | 62% | 64% | 26% | 42% | 40% |
Italian | 47% | 28% | 19% | 66% | 29% |
Econ: Macro | 56% | 62% | 21% | 27% | 34% |
Hum Geography | 59% | 61% | 21% | 34% | 34% |
Enviro Sci | 60% | 58% | 20% | 31% | 34% |
World History | 55% | 59% | 20% | 27% | 34% |
Chemistry | 57% | 65% | 23% | 30% | 35% |
Econ: Micro | 66% | 70% | 25% | 36% | 35% |
Statistics | 63% | 68% | 24% | 34% | 35% |
English Lit | 69% | 63% | 24% | 36% | 35% |
Spanish | 53% | 55% | 28% | 80% | 35% |
Biology | 54% | 59% | 21% | 26% | 36% |
US History | 53% | 56% | 21% | 27% | 38% |
English Compos. | 67% | 64% | 27% | 33% | 40% |
Gov: US | 57% | 54% | 23% | 28% | 40% |
Comp Sci A | 61% | 61% | 25% | 35% | 41% |
Comp Sci AB | 73% | 78% | 32% | 61% | 42% |
Physics B | 64% | 64% | 27% | 31% | 42% |
Gov: Compar. | 64% | 67% | 30% | 42% | 44% |
Chinese | 77% | 99% | 75% | 44% | 45% |
Music Theory | 71% | 78% | 36% | 46% | 46% |
Calculus AB | 65% | 66% | 30% | 39% | 46% |
Japanese | 57% | 84% | 44% | 40% | 48% |
Art: History | 62% | 57% | 31% | 43% | 51% |
Euro History | 65% | 65% | 33% | 40% | 51% |
Psychology | 72% | 71% | 38% | 48% | 53% |
French Lit | 70% | 71% | 38% | 48% | 53% |
Physics C: Mech | 75% | 76% | 44% | 50% | 58% |
Latin Lit | 67% | 69% | 42% | 52% | 60% |
Studio Art: Drawing | 70% | 77% | 48% | 56% | 61% |
Latin: Vergil | 62% | 69% | 47% | 44% | 63% |
German | 66% | 73% | 46% | 60% | 64% |
Physics C: E&M | 70% | 73% | 47% | 55% | 64% |
Calculus BC | 82% | 82% | 55% | 63% | 67% |
Studio Art: 2-D | 70% | 72% | 52% | 59% | 72% |
Spanish Lit | 70% | 77% | 56% | 60% | 73% |
Studio Art: 3-D | 64% | 67% | 50% | 49% | 73% |
French | 57% | 57% | 49% | 42% | 74% |