The New York State Board of Regents and the State Education Department have approved a plan to implement a written licensing examination as the first step in a process to professionalize teaching. However, important issues and questions are raised when considering this testing component, such as: (1) the questionable validity of tests already in existence; (2) the impossibility of testing for commitment, enthusiasm, sensitivity, and collegiality; and (3) the difficulty of designing an ideologically neutral test of educational knowledge which will separate the competent novice teachers from the incompetent ones. One result of a licensing exam might be a narrowing of faculty philosophies, so that courses would be designed to match those philosophies established in prior exams, thus increasing conformity, and possibly dissuading the most creative students from pursuing education as a career. Other problems inherent in licensing exams can be found in the National Teacher Examination, which contains questions that trivialize the profession, and which make no contact with the art or the science of teaching, which is cogent testimony for the use of validity studies. A valid means of evaluation are internship programs, but they should be bolstered by training in supervisory skills. (Author/FG)