Schooling has been overused as a credential, and the way to reduce the credential value of sheer years of schooling is to provide better alternative credentials. Research findings indicate high unemployment among those who have not attained a high school diploma. A productive approach toward reducing this overemphasis on diplomas and years of schooling is to develop better, more functional credentials so that employers have a more reliable basis for judging applicants. Two alternative credentials are based on early employment (part-time jobs) and competency testing. A suggestion for facilitating the development and use of competency testing is that the National Institute of Education undertake a major research and development program to prepare very large pools of items appropriate for use in basic competency testing programs and then make these item pools available to the public without restriction. The paper, Competency Testing: Avoiding Some of The Pitfalls, is appended. (YLB)