Press Room   Press Releases   Publications   Photos   AWSP Blog - The Comp Book   Opinion Editorials/Letters   Articles   Multimedia   Contact Us   Facebook Page   Twitter

      Print this page
      Email to a friend

Home Press Room Articles

The King County Journal
January 20, 2006

Maintain WASL--and high education standards

Editorial

Student achievement in Washington must be improved to keep pace with societal changes, changes in the workplace and an increasingly competitive international economy,' the law says. To meet that challenge, the bill directed the Commission on Student Learning to create specific academic standards higher than most schools and students had ever achieved in the past.

Those standards are measured by the WASL, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test first introduced in 1997. This year's high-school sophomores are the first class who must pass all sections of the WASL in order to graduate in 2008.

The results of WASL tests last year taken by fourth-, seventh- and 10th-graders weren't good. Of all 10th-graders, only 47.5 percent met the minimum standard in math and only 35.8 percent in science.

But instead of seeing the poor results as a wake-up call, albeit one that should've come years ago, support is growing to dump the WASL because failure to pass it will mean that kids won't graduate from high school. "Are we really going to hold back thousands of kids from receiving a diploma? That's ridiculous," said Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver. His Democrat counterpart in Vancouver, Sen. Craig Pridemore, concurs.

"Yes, it is ridiculous, but not for the reasons given by the gentlemen from Vancouver. It's ridiculous because a high-school diploma should not be handed to someone who has not demonstrated that they've learned a minimum amount after spending 13 years in school."

Gov. Gregoire said she will not back down from supporting the WASL. On Thursday, principals from around the state, school board members, superintendents, parents, students and business leaders went to Olympia to focus attention on maintaining high education standards and the importance of retaining the WASL as a graduation requirement.

We know some students will need help to bring their skills up to an acceptable level. It may mean they need tutoring, extra time in school, perhaps go to summer school. They may need more time to take the tests.

Those are issues for educators to examine and work through and for our legislators to fund -- before that first class takes its final exam.