The Edmonds School District and teachers union have joined a coalition to oppose charter schools and have taken a common stance on WASL exams as a barrier to high school graduation.
While the steps they have taken cannot directly make changes to the state law regarding WASL exams, officials said they hope the joint effort on both issues will prove effective in this year’s legislative session.
“We’re trying to get folks in the area on the same page, and hopefully the strength of numbers and voices will be persuasive,” said Everett School Board President Kristie Dutton.
The coalition includes officials from six school districts and teacher’s unions – Everett, Edmonds, Shoreline, Northshore, Mukilteo and Snohomish. Each has taken individual steps towards supporting the causes.
“All of the associations and districts took a position of opposition and individual superintendents and boards have made their own alterations, but the intent is the same,” said Edmonds Education Association President Dan Wilson.
Wilson and Edmonds superintendent Wayne Robertson chose to join forces and wrote a letter to legislators expressing their opposition of charter schools. The EEA also passed two resolutions opposing the issues and union members have been active in sending letters and postcards stating their position to local legislators, Wilson said.
In Everett, the school board and the education association both recently passed two resolutions, one in opposition of using the WASL as a barrier to graduation and one against charter schools.
Members of the Shoreline Education Association recently passed a resolution “supporting choice and opposing charter schools” and sent it to legislators, said SEA president Cheryl Ricevuto. Union members also were encouraged to contact local legislative representatives. Shoreline Superintendent Jim Welsh sent a letter explaining the district’s opposition to charter schools, officials said.
The Northshore Education Association passed a resolution this month opposing the WASL as a graduation barrier.
Both issues are hot buttons for the school officials.
The charter schools bill has failed to pass through the legislature for two years. The main concern of critics is that while charter schools run independently from other public schools, they would be state-funded in the same manner. Local representatives Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds and Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, this year are leading a campaign against the bill.
“The public resources are spread thin enough, and there are plenty of choices for people in the public school district,” Robertson said.
Under current state law, passing the WASL exam in 10th grade will be mandatory for 2008 high school graduates. If students don’t pass the test, they don’t graduate. And they only get one chance to do it – no retakes are allowed.
“Different students have different strengths – it’s not that we don’t want measurements, it’s that we don’t want a one-size fits all measurement,” Shoreline School Board president Patti Giboney said.
Some officials believe the ambition to graduate would be lost if students who don’t pass the test have no chance to graduate.
“What do you do then for a kid for two years while they can’t graduate?” said Feik. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Ricevuto agreed.
“It’s educationally unsound to make high-stakes decisions on the test – there needs to be multiple opportunities for students to take the test and different ways to show what they know.”
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