A review of state laws governing certification of professional educators reveals both wide agreement on many certification issues and a shift toward making requirements more stringent. Teacher certification has long been accepted as a means of ensuring minimum competency. Many of the issues surrounding certification have been settled, including those involving school board responsibilities, certification for specific grades and subjects, certification of all educational professionals (such as superintendents, principals, and librarians), and requirement of completion of particular college degree programs. Similarities in statutes from Oregon, Nebraska, and Connecticut confirm this. Of late, however, state legislatures have tended to add new requirements. Now many state laws, as in Oklahoma and Florida, mandate statewide teacher examinations and reviews of beginning teachers' performance. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision affirms that such examinations are legal, even where, as in South Carolina, they disqualify proportionaltely more blacks than whites. States have enacted fewer regulations covering certification of educational administrators, but the reasons may be as much political as occupational. (RW)