United States v. State of South Carolina United States District Court, District of South Carolina, F. Supp ***Before a 3 judge court***

Background Information  In 1945, A committee recommended that NTE scores be used for certification because of the great variation in teacher training institutions  For over thirty years the State of South Carolina and its agencies have used score on the NTE to make decisions on –Teacher Certification –State aid payable to local districts  Local School Boards use NTE for –Teacher Selection –Teacher Compensation

Facts  South Carolina requires persons who teach in the public schools to hold a certificate issued by the State Board of Education – : Four types of certification. A:top 25% B: middle 50% C: Next 15% D: bottom 10% In 1957 switched to an absolute number instead of a percentage. This eliminated 1% of students from predominately white schools and 3% from predominately black schools

Facts (con’t)  In 1969 this certification system was revised with a two tier system –Professional: 975 –Warrant: 850 Need at least 400 on each Common and Applicable Area Examination –This eliminated 41% of black applicants but only 1% of white applicants  In 1976 the system was revised again broken into 18 specialty fields with minimum requirements –no statistics on this but the plaintiff predict disparity will grow between blacks and whites

Legal Issues  Does a minimum score requirements on the National Teacher Examine violate the equal protection clause of the fourteenth Amendment?

Arguments of Plaintiff  Certification and Compensation systems create a racial classification which violates the fourteenth amendment  New system will greatly reduce the number of black teachers eligible for certification

Arguments of the Defense  Thre is no discriminatory intent  NTE “Can be scored objectively and impartially and their use would not be subject to accusation that they are used for purposes of discrimination”

Justification  In the absence of discriminatory intent the classifications of teachers for both certification and pay purposes my be assessed under rational relationship standard required by the fourteenth amendment for all classifications  We conclude that the State’s use of the NTE for both certification and pay purposes meets the rational relationship standard of McGowan v. Maryland, supra and consequently does not violate the equal protection clause of the 14 th Amendment

Ruling  In this case the plaintiffs have come forth with no other reasonably appropriate criteria upon which certification may be properly based. Nor have they established any defect in the NTE indicating that the test discriminate on the basis of race  The NTE creates classifications only on permissible bases. Their use in making certification decisions by the State is proper and legal

Significance  States are allowed to use standardized tests as part of their requirement for certification