In its most simple form, competency means that the student must demonstrate that he knows certain things and that he can do certain things before being passed on to the next level of schooling. In its most politically potent form, competency means that school personnel are judged by how well pupils acquire minimum school skills. In this paper the analysis of competency and of other trends in educational policy proceeds from the assumption that education is political before it is anything else. The politics of decision making determine what the schools must do. Two of the forces that are used to decide which kinds of educational politics are most likely to prevail in policy matters pertaining to competency are the convergence of the evolution of judicial perspective on minimum competencies, and the enormous public clamor for measures of pupil progress. Various court cases involving adequate education, right to treatment, and educational malpractice describe a judiciary that is moving closer and closer to asserting the legal right of all students to certain minimum competencies. (Author/AM)