The most important aspect of competency-based education is clearly linked to Bloom's mastery learning model: the establishment of behaviors which ought to be learned and adequately performed by public school students. The main components of competency based education are: (1) establishment of student standards; (2) student testing; and (3) professional development of school staff. These components have been a part of Michigan's competency based program for several years. Competency based education is difficult to institutionalize because school personnel are not trained to provide it; because discrepancies exist between parents' and teachers' expectations of students, textbooks used, tests used, and report cards used. Societal and technological changes in the United States, as well as an interest in equality and in effective use of taxes in support of education, have led to a changing role for today's schools. National policy no longer supports the idea that schools should screen, sort, and select students. Competency based education offers the potential to provide equality, equity and excellence in education, because it supports individualized instruction, emphasis on results, parent involvement, cohesive teacher education, and linking between schooling and employment. (GDC)