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Affirmative Action Plan Flowchart

Step 1 Was there history of discrimination? Yes, while we do not have all of the details of the Affirmative Action Plan put in place by the school system, one would assume that because a lower percentage of employees were Hispanic there was some degree of discrimination happening especially when the percentage of Hispanic residents was quite a bit higher. So yes there was discrimination we can move down to question two.

Step 2 Does the plan benefit only people who were actual victims of discriminations? No, the situations does not list a specific situation that happened that brought about the need of an affirmation action program, move to question three

Step 3 What population was used to establish goals? Area or Qualified? According to the given information there was an increase in minority employees hiring however, it does not specify if they were qualified or not, I find it hard to believe that the school system employed almost all of the qualified work force. Again, with out additional information I would stop here and say the affirmative action program that was in place would be deemed illegal at this point. Now, if the school system was indeed looking at the "qualified" minority workers the numbers given would show that yes this plan was working and we would move onto question four.

Step 4 Did affirmative action method trammel (impact) rights of non minorities? This is where I would feel like there was a "gray" area in regards to the Hispanic employee being hired as opposed to the white employee. The GPA given for both applicants is very close and two versus three years teaching may not make a difference. What the white applicant is unaware of is if that minority applicant held other accreditations or additional training. Also, in my experience, sometimes being bilingual can push an applicant closer than one who is not.

Step 5 Is there an ending point to the plan? As far as we know, no, there is not an ending point for the plan. One would again, assume that yes, there is an ending point and that the school system was advised as to that timeframe. There cannot be an "indefinite" plan, there needs to be a clear start and end date with goals that need to be attained.

After, going through the flowchart, I am unsure if the personnel director should be worried. If the school system set up an affirmative action plan successfully, following the flowchart and the legal requirements, this person should be confident in their decisions.