Editorial

Public education is no longer the three Rs, it has become an alphabet soup of WASL, ITED, AYP and other acronyms that all stand for non-educators thinking they can use one measuring stick for the spectrum of individuals that is our society.

This past week, the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction released the latest results of fourth- seventh- and tenth-graders who took the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Taking the WASL is state law, put in place by legislators who felt that the quality of public education would rise if they wielded the stick, rather than the carrot. Already stooping under the burden of state and federal mandates, teachers are supposed to be motivated by the whipping that the one-size-fits-all WASL administers to their students.

The WASL could have been one of several tools used to help schools focus efforts to better serve students. Instead, it has become a scorecard used to determine in which school district to buy a house.

Now, with the federal “No Child Left Behind” act, WASL scores continue to be subverted. The state test is used as part of a performance grading system that could result in federal money being taken away from underperforming schools, the very schools that need it the most.

For example, many larger schools in this area failed to meet federal standards for special education. Those standards applied to schools with 30 or more such students. Schools with fewer than 30 were exempt, even though the special education performance there is likely the same.

Just the idea of asking a special education student, who in some districts is by definition two years behind grade level, to pass a grade-level test is questionable logic.

Quality public education is a cornerstone on which America is built. Making sure it stays a solid foundation should involve the experts, educators who know how to teach children, not those on the outside trolling for votes.