Publisher:  Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock Publishers

The purpose of the introductory sections of this chapter is to set minimum competency testing in the context of the current issues and technology of educational measurement, and to identify the special characteristics of minimum competency testing that distinguish it from similar measurement techniques. Minimum competency testing has political purposes and does not serve day-to-day classroom decisions; as a result it is fundamentally unlike the instructionally oriented measurement practices from which it takes its form. Therefore, the identification of similarities and differences between minimum competency testing and criterion-referenced testing is a guiding theme throughout this chapter.