Every single AP Test fails EEOC's Four-Fifths Regulation
07/14/2009
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At the heart of the Ricci case, which Judge Sonia Sotomayor attempted to bury so that it couldn't be appealed when she heard it by upholding the lower court's anti-Ricci decision without an opinion (outraging her mentor Judge Jose Cabranes), is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Four-Fifths Rule.

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%
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