Addressing often neglected broad issues, rather than the pragmatics of test development and administration, this Conference on Minimum Competency Achievement Testing was organized around six topics: (1) social and philosophical roots, uniqueness among testing movements, and policy issues; (2) legal, curricular, and social-demographic consequences; (3) implications for teachers, students and the handicapped; (4) testing programs in Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, the Georgia State University System, Los Angeles, Portland, and the role of the National Institute of Education; (5) competency identification, test development, and standard setting; and (6) alternatives--certification separate from school, competency-based and outcomes-based education, and functional literacy for work. In papers on topics as diverse as philosophy, policy, and the curriculum, there was the suggestion that the political effects of minimum competency testing, namely state control of public education, will be the most profound. Furthermore, if test content comes to define content of curriculum, middle-class children will enjoy an enriched college preparatory program in private schools, and more disadvantaged students will fail to graduate from high school. Thirty-eight speeches and reactions are included in this collection. (CP)