Over the past few years, several complicated innovations, such as mainstreaming and minimal competency testing, have confronted teachers in addition to their usual responsibilities. In order to facilitate the teachers' implementation of such changes, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was developed, using the teacher and the innovation as the frame of reference. Three of CBAM's diagnostic dimensions are the person's Stages of Concern About an Innovation; Levels of Use of the Innovation; and Innovation Configurations. The model may be applied to many different innovations in a variety of contexts. Competency testing is seen as an innovation because it introduces new testing procedures and necessitates a complex process of change. The implementation of competency testing should include emphasis on advance planning, attention to individual concerns and levels of use, and acknowledgement of the innovation configurations which are being implemented. (Author/GSK)