St. Louis firefighter hopefuls failing basic math on entrance test

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- St. Louis officials will retest firefighter applicants at a later date after more than two-thirds of them could not answer basic math and reading questions on an entrance exam, the city's personnel chief told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Thursday's edition.

More than 70 percent of about 1,350 applicants who took the test in July failed it, according to personnel director Richard Frank. He believes the results confirm a larger trend affecting the municipal work force.

"We're learning that many, many job applicants are coming to the job without basic skills," Frank said. "The schools are doing a questionable job of preparing people."

The test was the first part of an entrance exam that applicants must pass before qualifying to take a physical performance test. Candidates who pass both phases, plus a background and medical screening, are eligible to join the department.

The city does not release test questions, but Frank offered one problem that he said would be similar: Assume a length of hose is 30 feet long. A fire is 90 feet away. How many lengths of hose are needed to reach the fire?

"We're talking about elementary level skill," Frank said.

Frank said the makers of the test, a company called Ergometrics, told him that the city's failure rate was "unprecedented."

Fire Chief Sherman George declined to answer questions about the entrance exam.

Ergometrics, based in Seattle, was founded in 1980 and produces entry-level exams for a wide range of jobs. The company did not answer repeated requests for comment.

The city spent about $62,000 for the exam from Ergometrics, Frank said. City officials are now looking for another test provider to supply a new entrance exam.

Last week, all of the applicants who took the entrance exam were sent a letter saying they would have to take the test again "due to the extremely high failure rate." The applicants were not told if they passed or failed.

Some were unhappy about the prospect of taking the test again.

Tad Behrmann, 27, described the exam as "extremely rudimentary."

"If there was a huge failure rate, then why not just let these people who failed fail?" Behrmann asked.

That sentiment is shared by the firefighters union.

"We want the best. I don't think it's asking too much for someone to read, write and do basic math," said Chris Molitor, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 73. "This test was designed to eliminate those people who could not perform those basic functions. It sounds to me as if the test was doing its job."

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com