Ill-Advised Attempt at WASL Backsliding

The Senate Education Committee met today to consider SB 6540 delaying until 2013 the requirement that students pass the WASL reading and writing standards. AWB president Don Brunell put AWB's support for the current standards in this letter to committee members.

This morning's editorial in The News Tribune also nails the issue.

Can it be mere coincidence that the state Senate’s education committee is holding a hearing on the latest anti-WASL bill on Monday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day? The timing certainly suggests that this is a civil rights issue, and that’s what some opponents of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning have long been claiming...

Are African-American and Latino students well-served by handing them empty diplomas that reflect no academic achievement or mastery of basic skills?

...A survey commissioned by the Partnership for Learning last year asked black and Latino parents if they supported the WASL graduation requirement. They did by large margins: 62 percent of blacks, 72 percent of Latinos.

Told of the multiple opportunities to take the test, the state-funded assistance and the exemption of students with serious disabilities, the support went from strong to overwhelming. Eighty-three percent of blacks and 81 percent of Latinos said they’d support the WASL requirement even if one of their own children didn’t pass it on the first try.

Minority parents appear to better understand the realities of the job market – and expect more from their schools and children – than some who claim to speak for them.

Well said.