Skills gaps, not tests, make racial proportionality impossible

Recent bans on racial preferences in some states have increased the political pressure to abandon cognitive testing to raise rates of minority hiring and college admissions. However, general skills gaps, not tests, are the major remaining impediment to racial parity in outcomes. Data on the size, stability, and functional importance of racial gaps in cognitive skills show the futility of seeking racial parity without first closing skills gaps. Lowering mental standards for Blacks alone (double standards) or for all races (low common standards) far enough to produce Black-White parity in educational and occupational outcomes would lead to performance problems so conspicuous and so severe as to force a reversal of that effort to achieve proportionality. There is widespread reluctance to acknowledge that racial skills gaps are a serious national problem, but confronting them energetically offers the most hope.