The WASL — oops, High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) — is a test for Washington students only.
It doesn’t compare our students’ scores to scores of other students across the nation. Our students as individuals or comparatively are not measured against other students’ skills until they are pretty much done with their education process and are taking their PSATs/SATs — and are thus preparing for college. Many students will not pursue a college education, meaning the skills they got in their K-12 school career will need to carry them through their lives and allow them to get high enough paying jobs to take care of themselves and their future families. So let’s hope they got the best of the best of educations here in Washington state. But for those who intend to go to college, not having the right skills means added expenses in college to retake classes in which they don’t meet requirements, and lower GPAs if their skills aren’t top notch. And how would we know if their skills aren’t top notch, if even our teachers union says they don’t get info from the WASL stating where students’ weaknesses are?
For all we know, we could be producing the next generation of burger flippers, and though that might make some parents proud, I hope for better things for my children.
Year after year, I have opted that my children not take the WASL. A lot of parents aren’t aware that there is even an option, but there is. Catch is, if you opt out, the school will get a big fat zero for your child’s score, and it will look bad on the teachers, the administration, the district, etc. Now, I don’t want to black any educators’ eyes, and I hate to see so many folks affected by my decision, but I have to stand firm against this archaic form of testing (no matter how many times it has been revised and approved by the governor’s staff via taxpayers’ dollars). Fact is, our children will one day be competing for jobs with people who have been educated in other states where they have been able to compare the scores and levels of success that they have obtained with others across the nation because they have used the nationally accepted Ohio and Iowa tests rather than trying to reinvent the educational wheel.
Realize that even if your child somehow were to get the highest score possible on the WASL, there is no way of knowing how well his/her skill levels would compare to those across the nation. In other words, he/she may be the top dog here, but only falls in the 70th percentile nationwide and you wouldn’t even know it.
If we were to allow our students to return to a nationally accepted standardized test, it is much easier to identify where our students are lacking (and excelling) and modify our curriculum accordingly. Perhaps our schools could consider following the same curriculum of the most successful schools across the nation and integrating them with our current curriculum. It just makes sense. So, if you are a parent of a student in our state, perhaps it’s time you stood up too, and opt your children out of the HSPE. Seeing as our state politicians are hell bent on continuing with this, it seems not participating is the only way they will get the message that they need to ditch this ineffective, highly questionable, tax dollar sucking test that really gives our children absolutely no guaranteed payoff.
There is still time. Write your letter today and opt your child out of HSPE testing. Give the state no choice but to ditch it.
Gayla Hardison, Federal Way
