The author posits that testing teacher quality will not improve education unless people realize how current means of teacher testing could eliminate from teacher preparation the utopian elements that foundations courses present through material from authors such as Maxine Greene, Samuel Bowles, and Herbert Gintis. He presents a history of the development of competency tests for teachers, focusing on the 1920s and the 1980s, describing their basis in business practices, and draws from the literature to argue for teacher preparation and testing that better reflects the competencies necessary to be an effective instructor.