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…

Outlined and evaluated in this paper is the collaborative process used by Project 81 state educational agency (SEA), local educational agency (LEA) and support staff in planning and managing a survey to validate life-role competency statements at twelve pilot sites in Pennsylvania. The project is a Pennsylvania Department of Education…

The Massachusetts Policy on Basic Skills Improvement was formulated to help students master basic skills prior to high school graduation. The aim of this guide is to assist local districts in complying with the policy's requirements for the setting of minimal standards according to levels of achievement students are expected to reach on stated…

The minimum competency movement's rationale can be reduced to four problem-laden propositions: the state through its schools owes every child an education; a high school graduate should be at least minimally competent; schools should be held accountable for seeing to it that every child meets this standard; and to assure this, every child must be…

The speeches presented at the second national conference on testing deal with models for program evaluation, reporting of test results, minimum competency programs, and the role of state and federal government in educational testing. Various approaches to program evaluation, and its relationship to testing are described by Michael Scriven, Lee J.…

The minialist approach to social policy, especially concerning public education, has not worked because the assurance of minimal protection for the deprived also entails a rise in acceptable levels of attainment for those above the minimum, in order to preserve their competitive advantage. Also, particular minimums, such as universal elementary…

Guidelines for setting performance standards for minimum competency testing are suggested. Because qualitative judgments are involved, certain options should be considered, such as periodic reviews and necessary revisions of standards; use of experience-based rather than arbitrary standards; and thorough consideration of standards, even if the…

The Oregon State Board of Education has rejected the use of cut-off scores on a proficiency test to establish minimum performance standards for high school graduation. Instead, each school district is required to specify--by local board adoption--minimum competencies in reading, writing, listening, speaking, analyzing, and computing. These…

This document contains Modules 6 and 7 of a series designed to familiarize users with Oregon minimum standards for public schools. Both modules focus on graduation requirements and each module begins with a performance indicator that indicates the important information and competencies to be taught in the module. Both supply study guides to…

Discussions at the National Consortium on Testing conference are summarized. Updates on recent and upcoming events are given by Jeff Schiller (National Institute of Education), Doug Whitney (American Council on Education), John Maxwell (National Council of Teachers of English), Dorianne Almann (National Science Teachers Association), Eric Gardner…

This publication presents the competency-based, common-core criminal justice curriculum developed to respond to a need for a curriculum recognized by Arizona criminal justice agencies, community colleges, and universities. It contains the five courses of the core curriculum--Introduction to Criminal Justice, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Rules…

This booklet is comprised of eight courses for fire science which were identified as common-core by a statewide fire science education advisory council composed of experts in the field of fire science education in Arizona. Common-core courses included are (1) Introduction to Fire Protection, (2) Introduction to Fire Prevention, (3) Introduction to…

One of seven sections of a report that examines the assessment of occupational competence, this chapter examines the issue of certification from the perspective of the consumer of services performed by the individual possessing the credential. To provide an understanding of the current practice of competence assessment as a component of…

This study reports on attempts to determine whether the remedial instruction provided to high school students who failed one or both sections of the North Carolina Competency Test have resulted in improved performance on subsequent tests. Separate data were gathered for three semesters: Fall 1978, Spring 1979, and Fall 1979. Information was…

This curriculum guide was devised as part of the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) school district's "Blueprint for Academic Achievement," which called for the identification of essential learning for each grade. This guide covers the key competencies in reading and language arts--reading, writing, listening, and speaking--taught in grades kindergarten…