Complaint: Renaissance 2010 (Chicago) Hiring Racially Biased (CORE on the case)

[Hannah Bell]

CORE recently did some research of its own and discovered a troubling hiring pattern that's emerged under Renaissance 2010; since the initiative was adopted in 2002, the number of African American teachers in Chicago fell from 39 to 32 percent, meaning that there are now 2,000 fewer black teachers in the classroom.

That prompted three CORE teachers to file a joint complaint (PDF) with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission yesterday, alleging that hiring under the Renaissance 2010 system is discriminatory. Specifically, they argue that the hiring pattern demonstrates a violation of Title VII, which prohibits "practices that are fair in form but discriminatory in operation." One CORE member explains the complaint via a release:

“Since the beginning of the year, I’ve met black teachers who are working as substitutes. They are in tears, not just about the loss of their jobs but also about the loss of their status in the community. These school and position closings are insidious and Draconian. They are based on only one measurement -- test scores -- which say more about socio-economic status than they do about teaching and learning.”

Here's an important point to consider: even at Howe, which has been lauded as a national example of turnaround success, test scores remain subpar, according to a recent feature in U.S. News & World Report. During the turnaround process at Howe, in the South Austin community, the number of African American teachers fell to 14 from 22. At the same time, the number of white teachers increased from 10 to 14, according to the complaint. With this evidence in hand, the Chi-Town Daily News reports, the ball's now in the EEOC's court to determine whether there's a case in the stats...

http://progressillinois.com/2009/6/12/complaint-hiring-racially-biased

[Hannah Bell]

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