The implementation of any competency testing program must take into consideration the due process clause and the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Examples of the violation of the due process clause would be to implement a testing program without adequate notice or to cover material not taught. Instructional validity must be…

Competency-based education programs could raise three kinds of legal issues: claims under the due process clause, claims of discrimination under the equal protection clause, and claims of negligence. (Author/JM)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has had a competency-based vocational instructor approval process for more than two and one-half decades. Perhaps the most important element in this process has been the vocational competency testing. Although some say that Massachusetts is out of step, others feel that Massachusetts has a well-established testing…

This paper discusses two examples of federal agencies which administer laws fundamental to the protection and advancement of the educational interests of minority children: the Office for Civil Rights, and the Division of Education for the Disadvantaged. Provisions of these laws can be construed as protective standards which may provide the major…

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…