One purpose of this paper is to describe how the concept of statewide minimum standards has been used in other states and to suggest precisely how it should be used in New Jersey. Current New Jersey law requires districts to establish pupil proficiency levels in basic skills, to identify children who fall below them, and to provide those children with remediation services. Statewide pupil proficiency levels would be used to set a floor on those levels. The major purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the research evidence on mastery learning theory provides ample assurance that the goal of having virtually all normal children achieve mastery over basic skills in communication and computation set at meaningful levels is attainable. Mastery learning strategies require teachers to decide what they want children to learn and then to teach them, to test them to see what they know, and then to help those who do not know by providing time, methods, and materials suitable to the learning style of the particular child. (Author/IRT)