Math tests could be racist if they’re required for a job that isn’t math-based, according to a recently settled class-action lawsuit filed against Cook’s Pest Control, the nation’s eighth-largest pest control company.
According to plaintiff Marion Waters’ complaint, Waters and other job applicants took a written math and geometry test as part of the job screening process for many types of jobs at the company.
But administering a math test “disproportionately excludes African-Americans as candidates for jobs, and the test is not a valid predictor of success in the various jobs,” plaintiffs’ attorney Campbell Law PC wrote in a 2010 news release.
A legal notice posted Monday said that “Cook’s denies this, but the parties agreed to resolve the issue through a class settlement subject to court approval.”
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.