WASL cost state millions of dollars more than expected

posted 06:55 AM 04/30
Link this article here.

Inhale. Exhale. Breathe.

Now that the Washington Assessment of Student Learning is over for my seventh- and 10th-grade children, I can breathe. I think of the hours I have wasted worrying about my son not graduating if he could not pass the math portion of the WASL, only to get a reprieve by our Legislature. The state board of education Web site (www.sbe.wa.gov) shows the classes of 2009-12 will need to continue taking math as juniors and seniors and still are allowed to fail the math WASL up to four times. If a child does not meet the requirements for graduating on time with their class, do not be distressed. According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, "It's becoming more common for students to take five or six years to earn a high school diploma."

I think about my son's seventh- and eighth-grade years of homeschooling. I remember making plans for him to take the WASL in seventh grade so there would not be such a long gap between the fourth-grade WASL and the big one in 10th grade.

What a surprise when I discovered the WASL was not on the state's list of approved assessments for home-schooled children then. Instead, he took the Stanford Achievement Test, an approved test. According to Stanford's Web site, grades 4-12 test on: reading, writing, language, math, science, critical thinking and workplace productivity. Hmmm.

This sounds like objectives of the WASL. Stanford's test has been around for 80 years.

According to Wikipedia, "The Stanford Achievement Test is one of the leading standardized achievement tests utilized by school districts in the United States for assessing children from kindergarten through high school. ... It is more comprehensive in scope than newer state-created assessments."

Wow! All that and it cost us just $35 each year for our son to be tested and graded. There are approximately one million Washington students in grades K through 12. I recently read that the Washington Education Association paid for an independent study to evaluate the true cost of the WASL. It concluded that for the 2006-07 school year, the WASL cost local school districts and the state $113 million, or the cost of 1,600 new teachers.

Perhaps we (and this means all taxpayers in Washington) have already spent too much money to let go. Thinking about it reminds me of our boat. What great adventures we would have if we had our own boat. There was the pride, too, of not relying on anyone else to take us out on the water. The problem is that we spent more money on it initially than we planned and even more maintaining it. Then there were the unexpected costs of accessories: life jackets, tow ropes and water skis.

Do we cut our losses and acknowledge it was a grand experiment with some unfulfilled dreams or hang onto the boat because of our pride?

The WASL has cost this state millions of dollars more than expected. I hope it has not become a source of pride for the leaders at OSPI who just do not want to let go.

Maybe we will pull the boat out of the garage this weekend and decide if we are going to keep it or let it go.

Jamie Kenny, a member of The Olympian's Board of Contributors, lives in Tenino with her husband and two teenage children. She can be reached at kpraise2him@scattercreek.com.

In this country, we take our precious freedom for granted

posted 07:01 AM 02/06