The Nation - News from March 12, 1986

Secretary of Education William J. Bennett predicted that competency tests for America’s 2 million elementary and secondary schoolteachers will be a fact of life within the next decade. He said the tests and the creation of incentive pay plans will encourage students to become teachers, not drive them away from the profession. Texas on Monday became the second state to force its teachers to submit to a competency test or risk losing teaching certificates. Arkansas was the path-breaker last year, and Georgia is planning a similar exam.