Tabulates each state's minimum competency activities, indicating who mandated the action (state legislature/state board of education), who set the standards (local/state), which areas are tested (math/language arts/other), which tests are used (local/state/commercial), and use of the data (high school graduation/grade promotion/remedial…

Describes services offered by the Educational Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Tests, Measurement, and Evaluation (ERIC/TM) in the area of minimum competency testing; identifies the ERIC descriptors to use when searching documents on that subject; notes relevant services offered by other ERIC clearinghouses; and lists some applicable…

Minimum Competency Testing for high school students is discussed with regard to its development, use, potential, and administration. Various suggestions are presented to help teachers and administrators use the test results more effectively and minimize student and parental fears that low test scores will constitute a barrier to a high school…

The New Jersey Education Association charges that serious reporting errors in the state's minimum basic skills (MBS) testing program are causing some children to be falsely labelled as failures and are leading to misallocation of State Compensatory Education Aid, which is based on a formula using MBS scores. (SJL)

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)

A rationale is provided for integrating steps that are necessary both in minimum competency testing programs and in the process required under Public Law 94-142 (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act) for developing individualized education programs for handicapped children. (Author)

Minimum competency testing programs may discriminate against handicapped students. Action must be taken, this article warns, to assure that such programs do not emerge as an exclusionary practice that will require years to overcome. (Author)

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)

Issues of state control over private schools are expected to center primarily over the questions of literacy testing of students and minimum competency testing of teachers. Available from Headmaster U.S.A., Post Office Box 21587, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33335; sc $4.00. (Author/MLF)

Examines the political influences on minimum competency testing in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and California. (IRT)

Outlines a method for constructing minimum competency tests that are legitimate, answerable, and useful. At the heart of such tests is an item bank that is open to all to view. (Author/IRT)

The article analyzes three policy options in the competency testing of handicapped students: (1) requiring the handicapped to pass a competency test; (2) exempting the handicapped from such tests if their Individualized Education Plan requirements are met; and (3) development of differential competency standards for these students. (Author/DB)

During the 1986-87 school year, 4,299 handicapped students were given New Jersey's competency test which measures academic achievement in reading, mathematics, and writing. Twelve percent of these students passed the test. There was a variance across student classifications; the math subtest was particularly difficult for the students. (Author/DB)