Opponents of the WASL, and testing in general, have long spoken gloomily of the day coming when students in droves would be denied a diploma because of a supposedly capricious test. Well, that hasn't exactly come to pass.
Granted the perennial delay of the math WASL - or any math test for that matter - as a graduation requirement pads what otherwise might be troublesome numbers, but given the political and policy storm surrounding the WASL in recent years one would expect its immediate political impact this election season would be more clear.
It isn't.
The WEA is backing one WASL supporter - Governor Christine Gregoire - with gusto. It's opposing another staunch WASL defender - State Superintendent Terry Bergeson - with even more vigor. If that irony wasn't bizarre enough, recall that Bergeson herself is a former President of the WEA. Tells you what the teachers' union thinks of the WASL.
Yet, the WEA ironically now finds itself without a horse in the Superintendent's race. It endorsed Richland Schools Superintendent Richard Semler, a vocal WASL critic. He recently dropped out of the race to tend to family health issues.
That leaves Bergeson, for now, in a race with Randy Dorn, former legislator and current head of the Public School Employees of Washington (now affiliated with SEIU). Dorn will inevitably be dogged by the news he lobbied for a bill that would have resulted in a substantial boost in his own publicly funded pension.
How all this ends up, especially with the odd role the WEA is playing this year is needless to say, unpredictable. It certainly defies conventional wisdom at this stage of the electoral season.
Cross-posted at the Examiner.
Posted by Eric Earling at June 04, 2008 09:51 PM | Email ThisIt's still a complete waste of money, and (mostly) a complete waste of time as the test continues to be dumbed down year after year so more kids can pass. The math WASL in particular is an abomination, and that comes from the more credible groups like Where's The Math.
The best 2 things this state could do to help education are:
1) Abolish the WASL and replace with the ITBS or CAT or similar norm-referenced test. Let schools give criterion-referenced tests like the WASL on their own dime if they happen to think it's the "true measure" of student learning.
2) Abolish all the Educational Service Districts (ESDs) that are 99 44/100% waste.
Keep the WASL and add the math requirement. Even better adapt it along the lines of higher-ed testing done in China and Japan. Hold the kids, parents & teachers to the high standards. If they don't like they are free to move elsewhere. Its a big nation. There are other states with much lower standards. Tests and trials are part of life.
Fully fund education by reducing/eliminating state spending for non-academic areas. SD taxpayers should be able to locally fund non-academic areas through local bonds & levies. That leaves the decision to fund non-academic programs in the hands of the local voters.
Money saved by eliminating non-academic programs can be used to increase base pay for teachers.
And the school year? 12 months @ 40 hours/week with 10 holidays off per year. Kids & staff get 14 days sick time + 14 days vacation + 2 floating days each year. Welcome to corporate America kids. Learn now so you can work later.
High standards? hell, I'd settle for competetent standards at this point, as it would be a marked improvement from where it is now. The problem with those 3 groups is that each blame the other group and all blame the testing method used to ecape any kind of responsibility.
The student says "the test is too hard! I can't learn that thing and besides, the teacher isn't helping me learn it anyway."
The Teacher says "the test is too hard! I can't spend all my time teaching this thing to student's who have parents that aren't involved in their child's learning. Send me an interested student and I'll teach it to them."
The Parent says "the test is too hard! I've done my time in High school and don't have the time to help teach Johnny how to solve his math problems. Besides, isn't this the teachers job at school? Why am I paying money for Johnny to go to school if he isn't learning anything while he's there?"
One big whinefest. I guess we're seeing the counter example to the "Greatest Generation" who somehow persevered through an era when there was actually something to complain about.
Posted by: Rick D. on June 5, 2008 06:44 AMThe last 20 years should give you a hint!
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on June 5, 2008 07:35 AMIt stands for We Are Sorely Lacking. Its former name stood for Washington Assessment of Student Learning, but since the "L" is missing in action, it was necessary to find an alternate definition more fitting of the acronym.
Posted by: Rick D. on June 5, 2008 08:40 AMThe more people do this, the stronger the message to the state.
Posted by: Andrew Brown on June 5, 2008 09:05 AMhttp://www.k12.wa.us/DataAdmin/pubdocs/p105/stateRacegradepercent2004.xls
To having only 78,000 as seniors:
http://www.k12.wa.us/DataAdmin/pubdocs/p105/Oct07StateEnrollmentGrade.xls
And then, in her presentation, there were only about 67,000 kids tested:
http://www.k12.wa.us/resources/pubdocs/2008/Class2008Presentation.pdf
Until there's an accounting given of those missing 23,000 kids, Terry's got some explaining to do.
Posted by: Ryan on June 5, 2008 01:11 PMIt is also impossible to get an education if you work above the WASL level as the schools do not offer any classes that are not WASL related.
Monroe Parent @2 writes that if parents don't like the WASL they can move to a state with much lower standards. Really? Have you ever read any of the reviews of our standards? We are at the bottom!! I cannot think of any state that has lower standards than ours (maybe Hawaii). Keep in mind that our state standards were written to match up with WASL.
I was at a math forum a few years ago where some of the top national math experts spoke. They laughed at our standards and our WASL test.
I don't believe China, Japan or any other country with high academic standards would give such a silly and subjective test like the WASL.. I should also add in expensive and time consuming. I believe those countries are looking for accurate and efficient ways to assess students.
Tomorow (Fri) Terry Bergeson will announce that the numbers provided are incorrect. Even more students have passed.
(I am not making this up, some one just sent me a media report)
Posted by: WHole Lotta Rosie on June 5, 2008 11:35 PMTomorow (Fri) Terry Bergeson will announce that the numbers provided are incorrect. Even more students have passed.
(I am not making this up, some one just sent me a media report)
Posted by: WHole Lotta Rosie on June 5, 2008 11:40 PMFunny, I thought I was a candidate, too. In fact, there's a fourth individual who announced his candidacy long ago.
Could it be that the media are afraid to mention me because I'm discussing issues beyond the WASL - which I was speaking out against over a decade ago, by the way?
Posted by: David Blomstrom on June 7, 2008 11:37 PM