How Much Must a Student Master?

"Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with," the Mock Turtle replied; "and then the different branches of Arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision."

--Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

To many worried parents, the new math-new methods teaching that swept public schools in the '60s made about as much sense as Lewis Carroll's Turtle. When they complained that children were no longer learning basic reading, writing and arithmetic, however, no one listened. Until, that is, test scores began plunging, and legislators and officials discovered that the supposed mess in public education could be a dangerous political issue.

Devalued Diploma. The result: in the past year, "minimal competency testing" has become the hottest new catch phrase in public education. Described by educators as a "man on the street" effort to halt the devaluation of a high school diploma, minimal competency requires students to pass proficiency exams, in addition to course work, in order to graduate. So far, six states --California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington--have enacted minimal competency laws. Florida has also outlawed traditional "social passing," by which illiterate students eventually graduated after merely attending school enough years. In ten more states, boards of education have decreed minimal competency on their own authority, and boards of over a dozen states are on the verge of doing so. Colleges, too, have caught the fever, and are increasingly requiring students to pass a writing exam before graduating.

Politicians have been quick to recognize a test whose time has come. Says California State Assemblyman Leroy Greene: "When a youngster gets out of high school, I expect him to be able to read a newspaper article, tell me what it said, and write me a couple hundred words on it in proper English." Adds Alabama State Senator Bill King, who has just introduced a minimal competency bill: "Taxpayers see so much money going into education yet producing students without basic skills. Legislators want to account for all of that money."

Once a state has ratified minimal competency testing, however, the rhetoric ends and the problems begin. Foremost among them: What constitutes "functional literacy"? Should only reading and math be tested? Or should the exams include such "survival skills" as how to balance a checkbook or read a road map? Should standard statewide exams, which might be biased against, say, inner-city children, be used? Or should individual tests be developed by local school districts?

Both the Educational Testing Service and American College Testing Program are hurrying into the minimal competency testing field. Yet some officials are leery of using standardized exams for fear the norm would not reflect realistic competencies for minority students--part of the continuing debate in U.S. society over achievement v. entitlement, and whether the goals of equality require double standards in many areas of opportunity.

Nor do the problems stop there.

When should students be tested? Many states, realizing that students must have time for remedial work if they fail a competency exam, are studying programs that would test students from early elementary grades upward. Extended remedial programs, however, would clearly cost additional tax dollars which may not be available. Warns Paul Hubbard, executive secretary of the Alabama Education Association: "Without a commitment of funds, the real danger is that we'll give a test that will put the stamp of failure on thousands of Alabama young people, and no alternative course will be available."

Yet another fear is that minimal competency might turn into maximum competency as well. Says Titus Singletary, an associate state school superintendent in Georgia: "We must be wary of tailoring our programs to meet one need and concentrating so much on it that we don't teach anything else." And, of course, there is the ultimate question: What to do with the student who fails?

Perhaps the most outspoken opponent of minimal competency is Educator Arthur Wise, whose influential 1968 treatise, Rich Schools, Poor Schools, argued that children in both affluent and underprivileged school districts had the right to an equal education. Wise is currently working on another book, tentatively titled Hyper-Rationalization, which condemns competency testing for "narrowing the goals of education and prompting teachers to teach the test." Wise fears that minimal competency entails the extension to education of such business-school concepts as cost effectiveness and accountability. Says he of minimal competency advocates: "It is as if they want to set goals and objectives by numbers. There is little room for the excellent teacher." Or, perhaps, for the excellent student.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.