In 1984 an evaluation team examined the Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP), a statewide competency-based, criterion-referenced testing program that was instituted to limit awarding of high school diplomas to those students who had earned scores above cut scores on a series of achievement tests. This article examines the procedures the state followed to ostensibly improve student attainment and compares them to the steps that an instructional system design/development model of instructional problem solution would require. It concludes that little worthwhile improvement in basic skills learning can be attributed to the testing and its associated curriculum augmentation programs. Effective procedures to improve instruction are described in a checklist manner by comparing Maryland's procedures with those required by the instructional systems development models. (Author/JAZ)