There's a big controversy going on in NYC as Mayor Bloomberg wants to end social promotion - the practice where students advance along with their peers even if they haven't technically satisfied the academic requirements.
In order to graduate, these third-graders will have to take (and pass) a reading and mathematics test.
As I said, this has proven to be a very controversial decision and there have been a bit of protesting about it. One of the allegations they've made now is that the tests are 'racially biased'.
You sometimes hear the same criticism of IQ-esque tests - the SATs, for example. This is important because, as the name implies, these tests are geared towards testing your raw aptitude - how smart you are, not what you know. Obviously, I still think the 'racially biased' label is still misplaced - after all, they discriminate based on edcuational background, not race.
But these are not the SATs or CATs or any other IQ tests. They test a specific skill, not aptitude.
Even if more blacks and Hispanics fail the tests, that doesn't mean the tests are racially biased. (I come to this conclusion because I'm SURE they are not trying to imply that blacks and Hispanics are incapable of passing the test).