Suggests that behavioral objectives and minimum competency testing can be effective for monitoring elementary students' mastery of basic skills, but to carry this system into the upper grades and other subject areas risks stultifying learning and inhibiting the free atmosphere that complex thinking and social education require. (SJL)

When designing competency based education programs to meet state requirements, California educators would do well to select only a small number of highly significant competencies per basic skill area, for which they can devise on-target instruction and valid competency measures. (SJL)

In this book comprised of six chapters, multiple aspects of competency based education (CBE) are discussed contextually by various authors in terms of the current educational climate wherein the primary emphasis is upon learning outcomes rather than the process of learning itself. To illuminate the notion of competence, Chapter 1 presents:…