Competency in the three skills areas of reading, writing, and mathematics is a requirement for high school graduation in the state of New York. The writing competency requirement consists of two tests: the Preliminary Competency Test in Writing, given to students in the eighth or ninth grade, and the Regents Competency Test in Writing, given to eleventh grade students. The Regents test, with its required multiple writing samples, poses a number of problems, the most outstanding being a standard approach to evaluation. The Regents test uses exemplary model answers and a set of criteria derived from the exemplary models. Each of the three samples must be rated by a different teacher, with the three ratings averaged to determine the test score. All tests with a 60% mean or above are rerated by the State Education Department to maintain a uniform statewide graduation standard in writing. Several things have been learned through the difficult process of developing the competency test in writing, including the facts that a statewide testing program can be implemented and can create a positive instructional thrust within the schools, that much more needs to be learned about the writing process and the products students produce in a testing situation, and that schools must establish a writing program that includes all disciplines and grade levels. (HTH)