United States v. State of South Carolina

1
United States v. State of South Carolina

• United States District Court, District of South
  Carolina, 1977.
• 445 F. Supp. 1094
• Before a 3 judge court

2
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

3
Facts

• South Carolina requires persons who teach in the
  public schools to hold a certificate issued by
  the State Board of Education
• 1945-1968 Four types of certification.
• Atop 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

4
Facts (cont)

• 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

5
Legal Issues

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

6
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

7
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

8
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 States 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 14th Amendment

9
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

10
Significance

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