Common bacterial blight (CBB) caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli (Xcp) and Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli var. fuscans (Xcpf), is a seed-borne disease of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) which adversely affects seed quality, yield and limits seed distribution across production regions.  Moderate to high levels of resistance have been introgressed into common bean from the tepary bean (P. acutifolius) and runner bean (P. coccineus).  Marker-assisted selection (MAS) has been utilized in common bean for resistance to bean common mosaic, bean golden mosaic, halo blight, rust, anthracnose, angular leaf spot, white mold and CBB.  Three sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers (SAP6, SU91 and LG5), each located on a different common bean linkage group, have been commonly used in MAS for CBB resistance.  With MAS becoming a method of choice for incorporating disease resistance traits into many agricultural crops, the objective of this research is to compare the effectiveness of MAS against direct disease selection (DDS) for CBB resistance.  Simultaneous selection for the three SCAR markers and DDS for CBB resistance were practiced independently from the F₁ (711 plants) to F₅ in a double-cross involving the following parents: Wilkinson 2 / DRK 2 // DRK 1 / VAX 3.  Fifteen F₅-derived F₆ breeding lines developed using MAS, 15 breeding lines developed using DDS, and the four parents were inoculated with Xcp in a randomized complete block design with four replicates in the greenhouse.  All plants were simultaneously assessed using MAS and this experiment was repeated twice in 2006.  Although highly resistant breeding lines were selected with both methods, the mean CBB score for DDS was lower than that for MAS in both experiments.  The impact of these selection techniques on agronomic characteristics such as growth habit, seed quality, seed size, and the economics of each selection technique will be discussed.