Establishment of the new Law and Education Center (LEC) at the Education Commission of the States is announced in this document. It notes that the LEC offers preventive legal assistance to state educational programs and that it will focus on a limited number of specific legal issues. The central topic of this initial newsletter is competency…

Chapter 6 of a book on school law attempts to identify and examine a few of the legal problems raised by minimum competency programs, which make successful performance on a standardized test a condition for receipt of a high school diploma. The three areas where minimum competency tests are most likely to be challenged are the equal protection and…

Truth in testing, competency testing, and intelligence tests constitute the central topics of this newsletter. The authors review a report prepared by the Education Commission of the States on truth-in-testing legislation and litigation, covering recent efforts at the state and federal levels to open the testing process to public scrutiny. They…

The authors critique legal arguments which have been used by attorneys, especially Merle S. McClung of the Center for Law and Education, in opposing minimum competency testing programs in the schools. The arguments mainly concern the 14th Amendment, racial discrimination, and the denial of due process. (SJL)

Discusses cases involving a nontenured high school coach's firing, state-mandated competency testing, and civil rights of public employees. (KS)

Most state legislatures have either passed or taken under consideration for passage some minimum competency testing program. However, it is not clear that these legislative efforts will result in implementation programs that fulfill legislative intent. Throughout the United States legal challenges from students adversely affected by testing…

Commentary and advice in four legal areas are offered in this newsletter on educational law. First, the document outlines preventive legal review for public educators in four basic steps, including anticipation of legal challenges, evaluation of the challenges' legal merits, consideration of the policy issues raised by potential challenges, and…

This report provides Minnesota legislators with background information on establishing state educational standards and periodic testing to measure student progress. Scientific management, the accountability movement, and the basic education movement were educational trends of the 1970's providing pressure on states to set standards to improve…

Legal issues of minimum competency testing derive from federal and state constitutional, statutory, and regulatory provisions, and from common law. Constitutional provisions for equal protection, due process, and freedom of belief and privacy, are primarily federal; education provisions are state mandated. Only four court cases have directly…

Handicapped students are now protected by specific statutes in addition to the broad constitutional protection offered all students. As the number of related statutes, regulations, and case law decisions grew, assimilation became increasingly difficult. This publication attempts to meet educators' need for a succinct guide in special education…

This volume is a collection of 21 papers concerning law and education presented by speakers of widely divergent points of view at the annual convention of the National Organization on Legal Problems of Education (NOLPE). The opinions expressed in the papers are solely those of the authors and do not represent any policy determination of NOLPE. The…