Not so fast on WASL
It's WASL time again, not just for students but for legislators and the governor:
In theory, as with many things, testing could be a valuable tool. It's hard to put it into practice in a way that doesn't create substantial drawbacks, like teaching to the test and creating unintended inequities. I'm hard pressed to justify using two weeks of education time for a test that has so many problems. WASL has become an out of control monster, and as I've noted before, a huge ticking time bomb for state politicians. You start keeping Little Johny and Little Suzy from getting high school diplomas because of some stupid standardized test, you're going to have big, big trouble on your hands.
To those who blithely claim that abandoning WASL requirements is "abandoning students," please stop being so simplistic. There is no panacea. Student performance is influenced by a host of factors, including but not limited to socio-economic factors, the quality of parental support and the quality of school districts, teachers and staff. We'd be better off to pursue high quality education as a matter of economic neccesity and intellectual curiosity rather than wasting so much time, money and effort on WASL.
One aspect of public education that troubles me is how authoritarian it seems today. I don't know, maybe it always was that way, but there are too many rules and too many things that seem designed to crush the spirit of young people rather than nurture them. And please don't misunderstand me; students need to follow basic rules about showing up on time, respecting others and doing their work. But when your kid (with a 3.75, BTW) misses one class period all year for an unexpected doctor's visit and you start getting threatening robo-calls, the system has clearly tipped too far in one direction.
WASL seems like a continuation of this authoritarianism. Exactly what lesson are we teaching young people with this stuff? Let the teachers do their jobs for crying out loud, it's a difficult enough job as it is.
The WASL needs to go away someday. It likely won't happen any time soon, but it's clear that it has too many problems.
The chair of the Senate Education Committee is in a standoff with Gov. Chris Gregoire over the possibility of delaying the reading and writing sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning as a high school graduation requirement.McAuliffe asks in the article why they should delay one portion but not the others. She has a point. Leaving aside legitimate concerns about discrimination against minority and low-income populations, what about the basic issue of fairness to all students? Some kids are better at math, some are better at reading. They're individuals, not political props for No Child Left Behind.
Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, says she has the support of a majority of her Senate colleagues to delay all three sections of the WASL.
In theory, as with many things, testing could be a valuable tool. It's hard to put it into practice in a way that doesn't create substantial drawbacks, like teaching to the test and creating unintended inequities. I'm hard pressed to justify using two weeks of education time for a test that has so many problems. WASL has become an out of control monster, and as I've noted before, a huge ticking time bomb for state politicians. You start keeping Little Johny and Little Suzy from getting high school diplomas because of some stupid standardized test, you're going to have big, big trouble on your hands.
To those who blithely claim that abandoning WASL requirements is "abandoning students," please stop being so simplistic. There is no panacea. Student performance is influenced by a host of factors, including but not limited to socio-economic factors, the quality of parental support and the quality of school districts, teachers and staff. We'd be better off to pursue high quality education as a matter of economic neccesity and intellectual curiosity rather than wasting so much time, money and effort on WASL.
One aspect of public education that troubles me is how authoritarian it seems today. I don't know, maybe it always was that way, but there are too many rules and too many things that seem designed to crush the spirit of young people rather than nurture them. And please don't misunderstand me; students need to follow basic rules about showing up on time, respecting others and doing their work. But when your kid (with a 3.75, BTW) misses one class period all year for an unexpected doctor's visit and you start getting threatening robo-calls, the system has clearly tipped too far in one direction.
WASL seems like a continuation of this authoritarianism. Exactly what lesson are we teaching young people with this stuff? Let the teachers do their jobs for crying out loud, it's a difficult enough job as it is.
The WASL needs to go away someday. It likely won't happen any time soon, but it's clear that it has too many problems.
