No Shortage of Perspectives on WASL, Math and Teaching

Release of the WASL scores prompted a deluge of opinion pieces, in addition to The News Tribune editorial I posted on earlier.

In the Seattle PI, guest opiner  Bruce Caldwell draws on a career teaching music and math to urge a balanced curriculum, including more arts education. He concludes:

Students who develop knowledge and curiosity about a wide spectrum of topics clearly learn better in all areas. Most math teachers are doing a good job of teaching; the students simply are not developing the skills to learn because of the narrow focus brought about by testing.

The Bellingham Herald editorializes for the WASL and for some changes in No Child Left Behind.

Our state should not abandon the WASL tests.

Still, the federal government needs to change the No Child Left Behind law to better reflect the reality of teaching special education and English-as-a-secondlanguage students. That any students in those situations are getting high enough scores to match federal requirements is a testament to the hard work our teachers are doing.

Simply put: Standards are needed, better educating is needed, and so is a more realistic system for judging those standards and improvements.

The Spokesman Review also criticizes NCLB.

And then there's this from an op-ed in the PI.

Through the Facing the Future curriculum students explore the connections between population, environment, consumption, poverty and conflict. They develop a global perspective, learn critical thinking skills and are inspired to take personal action. Most important, the materials emphasize that while the problems of environment, economy and society are connected -- so are the solutions.

Maybe after they successfully tackle math.