Gulino v. New York State Department of Education is a class action lawsuit that involves a teacher certification examination in New York. The case spanned over two decades and three iterations of the exam. The case is unique as the plaintiffs were already teaching in classrooms when they were required to sit for a new certification exam. Despite the unique nature of the case, it is a useful case study to examine what factors the court uses in evaluating employment assessments where there is a disparate impact (i.e., one racial/ethnic group consistently scores lower than another group).
This paper will first discuss the legal criteria used by courts in evaluating challenges to employment assessments, then describe the Gulino case and its resulting opinions.