This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

Minimum competency testing will help restore concern for cognitive development to the highest priority, and motivate teachers to teach more purposefully and students to work harder. A discussion of the kinds of tests to be used is included. (Author/IRT)

Replies to the immediately preceding article. The author contends that the cause of incompetence resides more in the overall ambience of disaffection in the nation than in the schools. (Author/IRT)

Many states have adopted minimal competency testing in reading or writing, assuming that goals of basic education are measurable and that testing for such goals is technologically feasible. It is not clear that such testing comes at a time in history when the quality of education is demonstrably lower than at other times in American education. The…

Describes problems with standardized testing and urges teachers to educate the public about weaknesses in statewide minimum competency testing. (DD)

This paper describes the philosophic assumptions underlying the movement towards minimum competency testing. Definitions of such concepts as scientific educational management, what is worth knowing, and the knower are explored. (DF)

The 32 tests described in this bibliography cover grades K-12 and are used to assess minimum competency in individual subjects such as mathematics, reading, or writing, or other basic academic areas. Several of the tests are state minimum competency examinations which students must pass in order to graduate. This document is one in a series of…

This monograph on developing and implementing admission testing for prospective teachers includes information on: (1) competency assessment activities in 31 selected states, the basic skills assessed, and time of testing--prior to admission and/or certification; (2) competency test development; (3) competency testing for admission into teacher…

Explores such myths as competency-based graduation requirements are a repudiation of humanistic concerns, the public won't accept subjective measures of competence, and requiring students to pass proficiency tests before graduation will increase public support for education. Offers suggestions for developing new kinds of graduation requirements.…

A study was designed to assess the effects of the introduction of a state-mandated minimum competency test (MCT) on students' acquisition of basic and high-level mathematics skills. Subjects of the study were ninth-grade students, all of whom attended the same schools in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District, and took the same form of the…

Two issues, one familiar and the other less so, emerge from the controversy over declining scores on standardized tests in the United States and the growing movement toward minimal competency testing mandated by government. The familiar issue involves the balance between egalitarianism and elitism in American education. The second, a reemerging…

Representatives from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas discuss the issues surrounding teacher and student competency and accountability. For each state, they review legislative policies and actions and the programs of the state education department regarding the use of competency and accountability standards. The…

This document sets forth detailed curriculum objectives and an associated three-phase promotion testing program for grades 3, 6, and 8 for public schools in the state of North Carolina. The program was administered for the first time in 1986. The 1987 testing program began with administration of the California Achievement Tests (CAT). Students…

The pattern toward an increase in the number of states using some form of competency testing prior to the certification of educators is substantiated in this paper. Competency testing programs are implemented at three distinct levels: (1) before entrance into a teacher education program near the end of the sophomore year in college; (2) at the end…

This paper examines some impacts of basic skills proficiency testing of teachers in Arizona. A discussion of some legal issues involved in teacher proficiency testing is presented. Specific cases are cited which illustrate the fact that the courts have ruled that testing must show "job-relatedness" and a "rational basis for…