A FEW OTHER THINGS NEEDED WITH EXIT TESTS

Accountability: The private sector demands it. On the job, employees must live up to expected standards or they'll find themselves unemployed. Most people operate under a kind of merit pay system. Do a good job, earn a positive employee review and it will probably be rewarded by yearly increases.

In the government, educational and some private sectors, the standards are not so rigorous. For some, just showing up warrants compensation. Years of service, not performance, determine pay increases. These skewed work ethics have affected the way some people feel about work and education.

Robert Bartman, Missouri's commissioner of education, wants to make students more accountable. He is pushing for exit exams prior to high school graduation. Students would be allowed to take the test as early as the 10th grade. A diploma would be contingent on passing the test.

The notion is intriguing. Certainly Missouri's schools are in sore need of methods to help boost scores and performance.

But what will we test? Performance-based education or a return to the basics that prove oh-so-essential in the work place?

Bartman can't have it both ways. If schools begin to require exit exams, they must teach the foundations of reading, writing and arithmetic. The tests must rely on right answers -- none of this shades of gray. It's time to dump hare-brained schemes like performance-based education where even those who grade the tests are having troubles. Standardized testing should be based on objective -- not subjective -- standards.

Bartman feels these exit tests will give students real rewards or consequences. Perhaps that same notion should be applied to the Missouri Department of Education. If students don't perform under these current goofy standards, there should be consequences for educational leaders. Perhaps student teachers should take the same kind of exit testing to ensure they are prepared for the job ahead.

An exit test itself won't guarantee excellence. Local school boards must have the power to make sure teachers can instruct the basics needed to graduate from high school.

Can our students do the math? Can they read, write and spell? Do they have a handle on emerging technologies that are becoming a mainstay of modern business? Unfortunately, too many of our Missouri seniors can't make the grade.

It's no wonder parents, taxpayers and employers are sounding the alarm for greater student performance and educational accountability. But an exit test only makes sense if it's coupled with back-to-the-basics curriculum and well-trained teachers who can make sure exit tests make a credible difference.