Of the key issues facing the Legislature in this short session, none is more urgent than keeping the state’s education-reform effort on track.
The accountability piece of that 11-year endeavor begins just two years from now, when the stakes will be raised for high-school students. They’ll have to earn a certificate of mastery by passing the Washington Assessment of Student Learning in reading, writing and math — in addition to existing requirements — to get a diploma. This year’s eighth-graders will begin taking the high-stakes test just two years from now.
With the clock winding down on this new requirement, lawmakers have yet to put procedures in place that will allow students more than one opportunity to pass the test, provide academic assistance in areas where students are having trouble, and allow the few diligent students who can’t pass one or more parts of the WASL another valid way to prove their proficiency.
It’s not that there is wide disagreement over this. A bill that would have provided all that’s needed passed the House overwhelmingly last session. The problem is politics — some lawmakers appear bent on tying any bill to unrelated education issues like charter schools. That’s what killed it last year.
We support launching a limited number of charter schools — independent public schools that operate free of many traditional regulations and are thus freer to innovate. But charter schools and the certificate of mastery should be dealt with separately. Holding one hostage to the other risks having both shot down.
That’s too big a risk at this late hour. If lawmakers fail to finalize the certificate of mastery, it could still be implemented for the class of 2008, but badly. Students who don’t pass the first time won’t know what their options are. Without funding in place for retakes or remedial lessons, struggling students could be left behind — an unacceptable scenario.
Lawmakers must act during this session in order to give educators, students and their families enough time to prepare. Procedures for retakes need to be ironed out, as do assessment alternatives. Broad outlines must be drawn now so education experts can begin working on the details.
The Legislature launched education reform in 1993, understanding that the point of education is not to earn a diploma, but to gain the skills and knowledge essential to living a successful life. If anything, the world has become even more challenging a decade later. Failing to act now risks leaving our children behind.
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