From 1946 to 1976, the field of higher education operated in a growth-based mode, encouraged by government decisions and financed by government funds. During the massive recession and exploding federal deficits of the early seventies, however, legislators began examining the real value of higher education, and asking whether higher education was worth its cost. As a result, colleges have been forced to seek new methods of proving the quality of their educational product. One method, evaluation through exit testing, and in particular Florida's College Level Academic Skills Program/Test (CLASP/CLAST), has directly effected the subject matter taught in the college classroom. In concept, the CLASP/CLAST tested 59 communications skills and 56 computation skills that every college student should master during the first 2 years of college to ensure that the college was doing its job. In reality, however, the results of the CLAST have been used to rank institutions. Though two- and four-year college faculty were heavily involved in identifying the skills to be tested, developing the CLAST instrument, and establishing cut-off scores, the end result of the CLASP was to establish state government control over the content of education in Florida. CLASP/CLAST has had positive effects in a number of areas, including student gains in measured competencies, increased articulation between institutions, and the improvement of the reputation of the community college system and accompanying increase in public confidence. On the other hand, critics point to negative consequences, including the tendency to view CLAST scores as predictors of upper division performance, the redirection of resources and objectives toward a single examination which has limited the breadth of educational experience in the lower division, and the inherent unfairness of passing a student through an educational system for 2 years, then denying him/her a diploma because of one examination. (EJV)