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The Seattle Times
January 20, 2006

Hearings begin on alternatives to the WASL

By Andrew Garber—Seattle Times Olympia bureau

OLYMPIA — Critics and supporters packed a Senate hearing room Thursday to debate bills that would get rid of the state's standardized test as the main graduation requirement for high-school students.

Odds are, however, the bills won't get far this session, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate say. "It hasn't been my sense ... that that's where we're headed," Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said the same is true in his caucus. Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire also has said she wants to keep the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) as the main graduation requirement.

Lots of people showed up Thursday with a different point of view. A crowd of teachers, parents and others filled the Senate Early Learning, K-12 and Higher Education committee hearing room and lined the walls. It was the first hearing this session on the topic.

Critics of keeping the test as a graduation requirement said no single test should determine if a student graduates from high school and argued it would demoralize students who have trouble passing the test.

Kate Enslein, a junior at Redmond High School, criticized state policy requiring students to take the WASL twice before being allowed to take an alternative test. "Forcing kids to experience continued failure will push them into dropping out of school," she said.

Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Association (WEA), told lawmakers most teachers in the union oppose keeping the test as a graduation requirement. "Our members believe there is something seriously wrong. There's too much emphasis on a single test," he said.

There were also plenty of people who urged legislators to keep the WASL as the primary graduation requirement.

Arcella Hall, principal at Grandview High School, in Grandview, Yakima County, said she views the test "as a real friend to our students."

"I urge you to stay the course. Stand behind the test. Have faith in our students," she said. "They will meet the measures."

The issue is coming to a head in the Legislature because this year's 10th-grade class is the first required by state law to pass the test to graduate by 2008.

The state projects that about 57 percent of this year's 10th-graders will pass the WASL. If those estimates prove true, about 34,000 high-school students will have to retake the test and do better to graduate in 2008, or show they've met state standards through an alternative assessment still being developed.

State law allows students to retake the parts of the test they didn't pass up to four times before graduation.

The WASL debate this session largely has boiled down to whether the state should require students to take the test a couple of times before letting them try an alternative assessment.

The bills heard by the Senate education committee Thursday would basically remove the WASL as the primary route to graduation.

Senate Bill 6461 would create a weighted system to determine if a student will graduate from high school. The WASL would be part of the overall system, but a student's grade-point average would carry the most weight. The measure is backed by the WEA, the state's largest teachers union.

Senate Bill 6618, backed by former Gov. Booth Gardner, would let students graduate from high school by passing a certified alternative assessment, such as a portfolio of student work, instead of the WASL.

The third measure would simply remove the WASL as a graduation requirement.

Gardner wasn't put off by comments by leadership that the bills aren't likely to go anywhere this session. "This thing is going to pass and the governor is going to sign it," Gardner said, concerning his proposal.