Examines the ineffectiveness of common law action in negligence suits and the effectiveness of state legislation to eliminate educational malpractice and functional illiteracy. Suggests alternative ways to prove educational malpractice. Available from New England Law Review, 126 Newbury St., Boston, MA 02116. (IRT)

Investigates the viability of a negligence action for inadequate public school education. Explores the problems inherent in proving each element of negligence, the available defense, and the potential consequences for plaintiffs, defendants, and educational policy-making that would flow from judicial recognition of a cause of action. Journal…

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 purpose of this research paper is to identify and examine legal issues and implications of mandatory competency tests (MCT) for high school graduation. The major data source for this investigation was actual court cases and abstracts and interpretations of court cases. It is not the purpose of this paper to perform a general review of…

This book is a study of civil cases, filed in court after 1976, involving students in elementary and high schools. The number of cases comes to 1,632, of which 769 are concerned with special education, 290 with disciplinary matters, and 248 with sports. The remaining cases deal with racial and sex discrimination, freedom of religion, establishment…

The intent of this chapter is to emphasize the student evaluation aspect over other legal principles. Several cases illustrate that courts will interfere with school boards' authority to determine placement of pupils only when a violation of constitutional or statutory rights of a student occurs. In the matter of sanctions against students that…

There is no current evidence that Minimum Competency Testing (MCT) used to deny high school diplomas has enhanced equal educational opportunities for minority students. Test results, largely indicate that MCT requirements impact disproportionately on black students. Black students' scores may reflect a long history of racial discrimination in the…

This book is a compilation of 17 papers presented at the 1979 convention of the National Organization on Legal Problems of Education. The authors are, for the most part, attorneys or educators specializing in school law. Most of the papers introduce a topic currently raising legal problems across the country and discuss the pertinent facts of and…