State’s high-stakes focus on WASL is misguided

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, February 25, 2006

As an elementary school teacher, I have 22 years of experience to convince me that no two children learn in the same way. Nor do students demonstrate what they’ve learned in the same way.

Yet the Washington Assessment of Student Learning demands that they do, giving greater advantage to those students who can recall and apply learning on demand in a high-pressure situation over those students who can complete a complex project over a long period of time. Beginning with this year’s sophomores, students must pass the WASL to graduate. If they don’t pass the test, they won’t receive a high school diploma.

Amid the current debate concerning the WASL as a graduation requirement, the clear choice is a system that would keep the WASL but add multiple measures to determine whether a student has met our state’s high academic standards. Under this proposal, students would enjoy a weighted system in which high school coursework would account for 70 percent of their graduation requirement, while the WASL would account for only 10 percent. The balance would come from student-centered assessments such as a culminating senior project.

This weighted system has several benefits. First of all, it values the entire curriculum. The WASL only tests math, reading and writing; important subjects, of course, but certainly not the only important subjects.

A weighted system also values different types of learners. A weighted system replaces balance in our system. The WASL isn’t useless, but it certainly doesn’t deserve more than 10 percent of our attention.

Most importantly, a weighted system logically values real learning over test preparation. Whether or not they’ll admit it, every teacher in this state has sacrificed valuable learning time in favor of last-minute WASL preparation. And for what? To produce numbers that non-educators have arbitrarily decreed “represent” learning. It makes as much sense as a baseball team focusing on batting average instead of trying to win ballgames.

Schools in our state have already shifted their focus and capital to measures that they know will improve their WASL numbers. Art programs are being cut. Drama programs are being eliminated. Remediation is being focused on those students who are just below the “WASL cut.”

In my own school we recently implemented an after-school program for those students just below standard. I once tried to place a student into the program who was well below standard, knowing he stood to benefit greatly from the extra instruction. I ended up having to call his father to explain why his son’s reading level was “too low” for the after-school program, and that he was being removed.

At the high school level, remediation will be focused on helping students improve their “test-taking skills.” This reminds me of the service stations that spring up next to the emission-testing facilities and exist only to tweak car engines enough to pass the test. They don’t even pretend to be fixing cars.

This proposal is being advanced primarily by teachers and parents. These are the people who are most in tune with our students and who see first-hand the damage caused by undue focus on a single-assessment graduation requirement. These are also the people who have the most at stake in seeing that our students succeed.

Teachers and parents want high standards. Polling shows that about 65 percent of our state’s teachers favor keeping the WASL. It is a useful tool to measure student learning and for systemic assessment. Most teachers would also agree that during the 13 years since education reform began in our state, the WASL has helped tremendously to focus instruction and strengthen the curriculum. Approximately 72 percent of these same teachers, however, favor using multiple assessments to determine high school graduation.

Although the Legislature may not implement a multiple measures model this year, a related bill would study the WASL and multiple measures of student achievement. However the Legislature proceeds, this much remains clear: Schools should not rely on the WASL alone to determine high school graduation.

Tom White is a National Board certified teacher who teaches third grade at Lynnwood Elementary School.