However feasible or easy it is to do minimum competency testing, the difficult task will be to defend doing it. (Author)

Colorado now requires applicants for teaching certificates to pass a basic skills test in spelling, English language usage, and mathematics and to demonstrate acceptable speaking ability. Student teachers must also complete this screening. Applicants have four chances to complete the test. (MLF)

Minimum competency testing in Louisiana emphasizes individual needs (as delineated in the indiviualized education program) regardless of special education classification. Nine format/procedural modifications are allowed on the Basic Skills Test, including braille editions and extended time. Test administration and score reporting may also be…

The problems inherent to standardized minimum competency testing are discussed. (HTH)

Contends that New Jersey's Minimum Basic Skills (MBS) tests in reading and mathematics waste time and money and should not be used by the state as the criteria to measure school and district performance. Low scores are the result of social conditions schools cannot correct by themselves. (Author/MLF)

The New Jersey Commissioner of Education replies that the Minimum Basic Skills (MBS) tests are not the sole criterion used to measure school and district performance and that some schools manage to teach well despite their students' low socioeconomic level. (Author/MLF)

Although the movement toward minimal competency testing has gained enormous momentum, a number of people are pointing out hazards and difficulties in implementing such tests. (Author/IRT)

Written by the Australian Education Council, this article outlines the purpose and the procedures for the Australian Studies in Student Performance program, a project to gather information on achievement in literacy and numeracy of a sample of 10 and 14 year olds. (HTH)

Development of survey test materials for the Australian national testing program in literacy and math skills is discussed. (HTH)

Radical, but nevertheless serious, suggestions are made to change ineffective schools. (MLF)

Contends that the imposition of competence standards might compensate for the climate of permissiveness that allowed students to graduate from high school without having developed high school level skills in the basics. (DD)

Developed to provide Texas school districts with information about the scope of the spelling objective on the writing test of the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills, this list includes all spelling words eligible for testing at each specified level. The paper contains lists for students in grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and the exit level of…

Discusses the costs of developing, administering, and regulating state competency tests as well as of the compensatory programs that the tests will make necessary, and then suggests five ways of reducing these costs. (IRT)

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)

Concludes that literature can serve the basic skills by providing a very powerful incentive for their mastery. (MKM)