When the American Psychological Association (APA) and Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) founded Training and Education in Professional Psychology (TEPP), their shared goal was to provide a venue where trainers at all levels (academic, internship, and postdoctoral) could find the most recent advances in education and training in professional psychology. Thus, the TEPP editorial leadership team welcomed the opportunity to publish the Competency Benchmarks document (Fouad et al., 2009) and the Assessment Toolkit (Kaslow et al., 2009), found in this special issue. After reading these major contributions, we found that we agreed with McCutcheon (p. S50): "It is difficult to think of a recent initiative that has cast a wider net over psychology education or which has broader applicability." We believe that both of these major contributions represent the best our field has to offer-careful thinking, extraordinary input from a broad array of constituencies, and the potential to substantively impact the education and training of professional psychologists.Given the scope of this special issue, and because both the Competency Benchmarks and the Assessment Toolkit are intended to serve as models for implementing a competency-based approach to education and training (rather than as mandates), the TEPP editorial board wanted to provide, alongside the documents, a forum for initial commentary about their contributions and implications for education. We invited a wide range of stakeholders to provide their reactions to these articles, including early career professionals, APA leaders, regulatory experts, experts on competencies, and internship and academic training professionals. We asked our respondents to carefully consider whether and how these competencies advance the field and what influence they believe each will have on training and practice.Our respondents did not disappoint. Their reactions are compelling in that they exhibit considerable convergence as well as a rare glimpse into the complexities the field faces as it attempts to foster a "culture of competence" (Roberts, Borden, Christiansen, & Lopez, 2005). This editorial briefly summarizes the strengths and challenges articulated by respondents. Drawing on these thoughtful critiques, we conclude with a call to action by articulating the critical next steps for the competencies movement.

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