Issues surrounding teaching competencies in family literacy programs were examined in a study of two well-established Even Start sites in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The program, which served 34 ethnically diverse adult learners, offered 25 hours of adult basic education, general educational development (GED), and English-for-speakers-of-other-languages instruction for parents, while their children participated in early childhood classrooms. The study investigated the reasons why the family literacy program had inconsistent results when evaluated according to the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), but showed positive gains on other standardized tests. Four teachers and eight students were interviewed regarding their perceptions of integrating teaching competencies into the GED curriculum. In addition, teachers were trained in using the CASAS competencies in their GED instruction by utilizing the CASAS curriculum. The results of CASAS pretesting and posttesting did not show measurable improvement compared with past years. Although all the students were receptive to some emphasis on competencies, and although all the teachers believed that addressing competencies is appropriate, most of the teachers found it difficult to systematically address competencies in their GED curriculum. Most teachers emphasized the difficulty of integrating CASAS competencies into GED instruction. (Contains 12 references.) (MN)