To help make school districts more accountable without resorting to minimum competency testing, the Minnesota legislature in 1976 passed a law requiring the state's 434 districts to prepare annual planning and evaluation reports (PERs). The PER law obliges districts to develop educational policies and review them annually; create an instructional plan; encourage community participation in policy-making, instructional planning, and evaluation; use tests and other means to evaluate progress; develop school improvement plans where needed; and report annually to the public and the state department of education. Data from the state's summary of the local district reports indicate increasing compliance with the PER law and greater use of improvement plans in most curriculum areas, but relatively low public availability of PER documents and a decline in the number of districts reporting community advisory committees. However, more districts are participating in the state's "piggyback" testing program, using test items developed by the state as well as locally-created items. Comparison of Minnesota's PER law with other states' competency laws shows that while PER is not rigorously enforceable, it does require local participation but without state expenditures. (Author/RW)