The panel which conducted this study was invited by the Florida Teaching Profession--National Education Association (NEA) and the NEA to assess the educational soundness of implementation of the Florida Accountability Act. The panel felt that the overall purpose of the accountability program was praiseworthy, but that the minimum competency testing program, with its mandatory standards for receiving a high school diploma, was seriously faulty because it took primary responsibilities away from the local school when the Florida Legislature had adopted a policy of school-based management. A strategy which the panel recommended for increased effectiveness would be to help schools identify their particular problems and assist each school in developing educational programs designed to attack those problems. Standards and requirements for promotion would then be based on more reasonable expectations. The panel also felt that an essential step for improvement would be to reconstruct the educational environment outside the school. Program inadequacies are attributed to excessive haste in instituting the program and failure to communicate with all participants. In addition, the panel felt that an attempt to have the public assume responsibility for out-of-school education should have been an early step in the accountability program. (Author/JAC)