Minimum competency testing has been mandated in one form or another by local school boards or by legislatures in 36 states. Court consideration of such testing has focused on the intent and the consequences of the testing. Where racial segregation in education has existed, courts have argued that even several years after desegregation, testing can be measuring effects of prior segregation and may be being used to reinstitute segregation under another guise. Where such punishments as denials of diplomas are based on competency testing, questions of due process concern the courts. Other factors of importance when considering testing programs are the relationship of the tests to legitimate interests of the state as the educating agency, the validity and reliability of the tests, and the opportunity for retesting if test results place legally protected interests (such as property or liberty interests in obtaining diplomas) in jeopardy. (Author/PGD)