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Minimum Competency Testing: Education Or Discrimination?, Mary G. Commander

University of Richmond Law Review

Minimum competency testing1 has been described as the "next major reform movement in American education." It also has been described as the "Great American Fad of the 1970's." The call for a minimum competency test requirement for graduation from high school resulted from increasing public concern about rising illiteracy rates and declining standardized test scores. This concern has created a "back to basics" trend in education, with a concurrent emphasis on educational accountability. This was the point at which most state legislatures entered the process by enacting accountability statutes. The competency tests are an aspect of this accountability. They are …