Minimum Competency Testing: Cautions on the State of the Art

Approximately 17 states have now, or soon will have, a minimum competency testing program (MCT) that requires that a student pass an MCT to receive a high school diploma and in some jurisdictions to advance to the next grade. In this paper, four problems inherent in using an MCT to make these types of decisions are discussed: (1) the lack of a defensible means of setting a passing score, (2) the measurement error associated with test scores, (3) the adverse impact on minority and handicapped students, and (4) the lack of evidence of the MCTs' validity for the decisions being made. Numerous studies and examples both from education and other areas where similar problems arise are presented. The appropriate uses of testing in an overall program are discussed, particularly the use of multiple indicators, of which MCTs can be one, to make important decisions about individuals and allowance for an MCT result to be overruled or dismissed if the weight of the evidence from the other indicators runs counter to the MCT result.