Urban education is beginning to adopt a new focus, based on the ideas that all children can and must become competent in reading, writing, and mathematics, and that this objective can only be achieved by shifting from a "service delivery" approach to one based on the collaboration of students, parents, teachers, and the community. There still exist, however, a number of reservations and misunderstandings about the goal of competence for all. These include the arguments that (1) minimum skills will become learning maximums; (2) faster learners will be held back; (3) other subjects will be sacrificed; (4) it is unfair or culturally oppressive to expect poor and minority children to master basics; (5) education is a secondary problem to unemployment; and (6) the testing of competencies is problematical. These arguments amount to unconscious resistance to the acceptance of clear learning goals. For a community to move toward teaching students basic competencies, it must: (1) adopt and accept clear goals; (2) apply competency standards to all students; (3) assure that every school has an effective strategy for pursuing the goals and that teachers are receiving the help they need; and (4) mobilize community support and monitor budget priorities and school performance. (Author/GC)