
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 21, 1990                   TAG: 9006210547
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VEC'S `RACIAL MANIPULATION' OF SCORES HIT

Republicans today blasted the Virginia Employment Commission for giving black job applicants a weighted score on aptitude tests as a "discriminating" policy.

Salem Del. Steve Agee called on Gov. Douglas Wilder to stop the "racial manipulation" of VEC test results and notify anyone who has taken the tests that their results did not reflect their "true performance."

Agee called the practice of grouping test results according to race and giving segregated percentile rankings "intentional publicly funded racial discrimination . . . regularly practiced by an agency" of the state.

Agee said Wilder should stop the practice immediately because it violates the first executive order of his administration that bans racial discrimination.

Meanwhile in Richmond, a group of Republican legislators called on the VEC to at least notify those who are tested and prospective employers that the test score rankings are adjusted by race.

The VEC policy has been assailed on the editorial pages of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in recent weeks, which brought the matter to public light.

According to that newspaper, the VEC has a policy of weighting scores on general aptitude tests to help blacks gain a higher percentile score when compared with national scoring. The VEC groups test scores among whites and blacks so "if two people get the same score, the white applicant would receive rank in the 47th percentile while the black applicant would score in the 87th percentile," Agee said. "And the applicant would never have a way of knowing that his score reflected that kind of grouping."

Moreover, Agee said that prospective employers "unless they are real smart" would not be aware that test scores are being ranked by racial groups. The VEC does not release raw scores for comparison, only the rankings.

In his letter to Wilder, Agee said the VEC is "purposely falsifying test results."

Wilder's office declined comment on the VEC issue this morning.

Virginia Employment Commission officials could not be reached for comment.

by CNB