Accountability and the Composition Program: Implications of the Regents Testing Program of the University System of Georgia.

The Regents Testing Program of the University of Georgia system establishes minimal standards of literacy for graduation from any of the 30 institutions in the system. The testing covers language skills basic to all of the academic areas, and instructors in the composition courses must follow a prescribed syllabus that requires a certain number of exercises which stress paragraph and essay writing. A student wishing to acquire an undergraduate degree in the Georgia system must pass the test which consists of a section on reading comprehension, finding errors in a passage, and the writing of an original, impromptu essay. Knowing what is expected of them as teachers of composition, the English faculty should now do a more thorough and detailed job of preparing students. (RB)