A binder of photos and mementos offers a glimpse of the teaching career Ethel DeZonie once had.

“This is when I started in 1997, so I saved it until they terminated me,” she said, leafing through it. “I saved it, because it was important — to see the growth of children.”

What You Need To Know

  • It's been more than 20 years since Black and Hispanic teachers sued the city over a teaching exam eventually ruled discriminatory

  • But thousands are still waiting to receive their judgements as the city continues to appeal

  • Ethel DeZonie, 75, was awarded more than $660,000 for a career cut short by the test

DeZonie didn’t get to see her teaching career grow because she failed a state certification exam used by the city, the Liberal Arts and Science Test.  

She wasn’t alone: Black and Hispanic teachers failed it at a significantly higher rate than their white counterparts.

“Think of all those teachers that they said, ‘You need to become certified,’ and they went and tested each time, and each time they get a fail grade,” she said. “It was just, I don’t know. You just look back on it, how heartless can people be?”

A lawsuit filed 24 years ago said the test, intended to measure knowledge of liberal arts and science, was discriminatory. In 2012, a federal judge agreed. A special master calculated what teachers like DeZonie would have earned if not for the exam. The city has been ordered to pay more than $450 million to about 1,700 teachers so far. Thousands more claims still must be heard. The case has dragged on so long, the original judge died.  

“These are all people whose careers were profoundly disrupted and in many cases destroyed by the use of this test that actually had no predictive reliability in terms of whether or not they were going to be effective teachers,” said Joshua Sohn, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the suit.

Because of the test, DeZonie had to leave Harlem’s P.S. 194, and classrooms filled with art, pets, and poetry. She ended up working in private schools and day care programs at lower salaries.

“I feel they took a part of my life away. But as far as a person, you can’t take my knowledge. You took my life, basically, but what’s in my head, you can’t ever take,” she said.

The city was ordered to pay her more than $660,000 in back pay, plus hundreds of thousands dollars more in interest, pension and tax relief. The city is appealing it and almost every other award, arguing the ruling was flawed and the payments were incorrectly calculated.

“This court ruling must be challenged because it is not grounded in law,” said Nick Paolucci, a law department spokesman. “The methodology the court used to calculate the awards grossly inflates damages, resulting in a windfall to the claimants. The city believes in fairness for all its employees, but this was a test the state required the city to use in its teacher hiring process, and we had no way of knowing the test was flawed. Now the city is burdened with costly and unfair court judgments.”

DeZonie said it's frustrating watching Mayor de Blasio advocating racial justice while his administration fights thousands of Black and Hispanic teachers in court.

“They talk the talk, but when it’s time to do something for people, they only do for themselves. They’re self-serving,” she said of de Blasio. “I even wrote him a letter. His office didn’t even have the decency to answer.”

She's now 75, and was taking temp jobs teaching up until the pandemic hit. These days, she sews masks and dresses with social-justice themes to bring in extra income. She fears she’ll never see the money she’s owed, but knows what she would do with it.

“I would help others, that’s what I would do,” she said.