A large ELT program administered a highly reliable test in common to the students of all required courses, finding 1) excessive heterogeneity of student proficiency levels within each credit course and 2) unsatisfactory differences in mean group proficiency between those credit courses. A thorough re‐evaluation of the program identified several key areas in need of modification, primarily: certain placement and promotion practices, procedures in the development of major course examinations such as midterm and final examinations, and specification of overall program and individual course objectives. Major changes were instituted in problem areas, and one year later the results of a second common test, similar to the first, not only revealed considerable progress in rationalizing course enrollment patterns, but suggested the possibility of markedly improved levels of student achievement in the higher credit course