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The Kitsap Sun
January 20, 2006

Bills Would Weaken WASL
Former governor Booth Gardner is a supporter of one proposed law

By Chad Lewis, Kitsap Sun staff reporter


OLYMPIA — At a Senate hearing Thursday, three bills that would fundamentally weaken the WASL drew both praise and criticism.

Among those testifying was the former governor who spearheaded the exam 13 years ago.

With this year’s 10th-graders only months away from becoming the first class required to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning to graduate, many teachers and parents fear that more students may drop out. Business leaders and the state principals association, meanwhile, argue that the WASL already has led to classroom improvements and say that it’s too late to drop the exam requirement.

Last year, fewer than half the students who took the WASL passed all three of its components — reading, writing and math.

Two of the bills discussed by the Senate education committee would downgrade the significance of the WASL, while a third would drop it as a graduation requirement altogether.

Bill 6618, which would require school districts to give students the option of taking a state-approved certified assessment in addition to the WASL, was introduced by former Gov. Booth Gardner, who signed the legislation creating the WASL in 1993.

"Whenever I’m around town and someone brings up the WASL, they want to know whose idea it was," Gardner said, leading to laughter in the packed Senate room. "I just fold my arms and walk away."

Gardner has said recently that the original purpose of the WASL was to increase state education standards, not to become a graduation requirement.

Bill 6461 would keep the WASL but weigh it against other existing graduation requirements, which include grade point average, a student’s plan for after high school and a culminating project required by school districts. For example, if a student performed poorly on the WASL, he could compensate for it with a high GPA and an impressive culminating project.

The state teachers union, which has come out strongly against the WASL, supports the bill.

"You can have high education standards without a high-stakes exam," said Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Association. "This allows us to keep the WASL without making it an unfair barrier to graduation."

Hasse told reporters after his testimony that his group recently decided to not run a series of radio advertisements supporting the bill.

"We see this as a compromise," Hasse said. "We don’t want to get into a big fight over this."

But business leaders and principals told senators that there will be plenty of alternatives available should a student not pass the WASL during his or her sophomore year. The Legislature has asked the state school superintendent’s office to suggest alternative assessment methods in addition to offering five chances to pass the exam.

"People keep arguing that there need to be alternatives to the WASL," said Paula Quinn, a principal in North Thurston School District, "and there will be. But there’s this misperception in the public that there won’t be."

Bill 6620, which would essentially make the WASL a voluntary test with no connection to graduation, drew little support, even from opponents of the exam.

Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, a member of the education committee, said in an interview after the hearing that he doubts any of the three bills will survive the committee process and make it to a floor vote.

"There is some division among committee members," Rockefeller said, "but I’m not backing down from higher standards. At this point, it looks like WASL is not going to change — not this year, anyway."