STATE MANDATE: WRONG ANSWERS ARE OK

Throughout April, students across the state will spend hours taking standardized proficiency tests. The Missouri Mastery and Achievement Test, which has been the standard test for several years, is making way for the new Missouri Assessment Program.

Only the math portion of the test is mandatory this year, although many of the schools are voluntarily giving the language arts assessment. That portion becomes mandatory next year.

No longer are test answers clearly right or wrong. Students must fill in the blanks, explain their answers and demonstrate their thinking process.

In other words, a student could get a math answer completely wrong, but if he demonstrated the correct thinking process, a point would still get awarded.

It's ludicrous.

These performance-based standards are a slippery slope that won't improve student achievement. Especially in the area of math, problems should have a correct answer at a minimum. Extra credit for methodology and logic are appropriate, but giving credit when the answer is wrong sends a bad message. This represents a far swing from a return to the basics that the public has sought.

The tests represent a grading nightmare. Grading with the new tests will be very subjective, and there is no way for the same person using the same criteria -- and biases -- can grade everyone's test. What passes as correct for one student may not for another. These standardized tests spell the death of fundamental standards.

Teachers will have to adapt their lessons to prepare students for this new style of testing. Teachers will have to emphasize the process more than the answer. In real life, it's the correct answer counts.

And it is not as if individual schools will have a choice. The test is mandated by the state. On top of that, more emphasis is being placed on comparing districts' performance.

Since there are no right or wrong answers, it will be more difficult to set performance levels for the students. It may take several years to amass enough data to show where students should actually be performing.

Education has gone through many goofy trends. Performance-based education is just another in a long line of fads that won't last. But in the meantime, how many students will suffer by learning that correct answers don't count?