ABSTRACT
Minimum competency testing is an effort to solve certain problems in education without first understanding what the problems are. In medical terms, minimum competency testing amounts to treating the symptom without paying much attention to the underlying ailment. Minimum competency testing has spread around the country with stunning speed. Educators are accustomed to sweeping changes overnight; they could easily put "new math" into every classroom in a couple of years and a decade later, would need only a couple of years to take it out again. The political environment surrounding education has lately become quite delicate. In a tradition dating back to colonial times, education in the United States has been viewed as a local concern, under the control of locally elected or appointed school boards. Some other nations, in contrast, govern education rigidly from the top, with every important decision being made at what would call the federal level.
