American education is not as inadequate as public opinion indicates. The literacy and skill of American youth are higher today than forty years ago because of our high achievement standards and commitment to equal educational opportunity. These opposing principles have been reconciled by the diversity encouraged in institutions, teachers, and instructional materials. Nationally sponsored achievement testing contradicts these principles; furthermore, many minimal competency programs already established at the state and local level exhibit the desired diversity. Norm-referenced tests provide most of the achievement data, but are open to misuse and mininterpretation by persons who know little about mental measurement. To encourage the development of criterion-referenced tests, the National Institute of Education should promote testing that helps teachers in the diagnosis of learning problems; and should re-enact the Education Professions Development Act which encouraged in-service teacher training in measurement. Minimal competency testing will have one of three effects: (1) students will be allowed to progress through school at different rates, increasing the cost of school completion for many students: (2) alternative institutions resembling the Job Corps must be developed for students who fail; (3) or we must live with the consequences of youth rejected by our educational and economic system, in the name of improving educational standards. Cultural bias and the principles of cognitive measurement should be considered before enacting legislation on achievement testing. (CP)