SeaTimes anti-WASL guest editorial

["Arthur Hu" <arthurhu@comcast.net>]

The dike has sprung a leak.... Looks like Orlich
and the rest of us were actually heard after all.

Still, he's still arguing for "the right
tests and standards" when standards based
education is fundamentally flawed. Graduation
from an institution without standards for admission
should not have performance standards for graduation.

Students of all abilities should have the right to
graduate.


z75\clip\2004\02\waslnot.txt
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Guest columnist
WASL is a poor gauge of student achievement
By James Harvey
Special to The Times
James Harvey, senior fellow at the Evans School's Center on
Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, is
co-author of "A Legacy of Learning" (Brookings Institution Press). He
can be reached at harvey324@earthlink.net
- WA students already at world class levels
- bar set beyond 3/4 of national students
- educational malpractice to use test for high stakes purposes

THE news that Washington state education leaders are rethinking the
wisdom of permitting scores on the current Washington Assessment of
Student Learning (WASL) to determine who walks across the high-school
graduation stage in 2008 is no cause for dancing in the streets. These
tests have cost too much and created too much anxiety among students
and parents for that. Still, responsible educators everywhere should
applaud.

The issue isn't whether the state supports standards. It's whether the
standards set by this assessment are valid and reliable. They are not.
A very good case can be made for the proposition that these tests,
which threaten to deny diplomas to two-thirds of today's
eighth-graders, are arbitrary and capricious.

It's encouraging to hear state Superintendent of Public Instruction
Terry Bergeson say: "Everyone is very nervous about this (WASL
situation) and they should be. I wish they'd gotten nervous about it a
long time ago." ("Prospect of dismal test scores renews debate over
WASL," Times page one, Jan. 27.) Better late than never. Facing an
educational train wreck, state leaders like Bergeson, according to
recent reports, are considering a panoply of changes. Permitting
students to retake the tests seems sensible to many in Olympia, an
idea already approved in the House and under consideration in the
Senate.

In addition to retakes, more help for students who are behind and more
money to help schools do a better job are under consideration. Also on
the table: eliminating the listening test; balancing a "near miss" in
one subject with a higher score in another; "banking" passing grades
in individual subjects so that students can concentrate on problem
areas; lowering "cut scores" (i.e., passing levels); and offering
alternative assessments for students who have trouble with
paper-and-pencil tests.

All of these possibilities make sense. The Legislature should act on
them immediately. The point of these changes isn't to abandon
standards or arbitrarily inflate the number of young people who
qualify for a diploma. It's to make sure that teenagers who deserve a
diploma aren't turned down without good cause ? or become so
discouraged they quit.

As the WASL drama plays itself out in Olympia, here are three things
to keep in mind about standards and assessment.

First, think of Washington as an independent nation. A 1998 report
from the National Center on Education Statistics examined results from
the highly respected Third International Math and Science Survey
(TIMSS). The analysis revealed that science results for Washington
eighth-graders were exceeded in only five nations in the world. In
mathematics, eleven countries outscored Washington, which beat or tied
29 other nations. By international standards, our students look pretty
good. Here at home, WASL defines them as failures.

Next, remember that many WASL standards look unreasonable if not
capricious when compared with other states' requirements. An analysis
by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), a nonprofit,
nonpartisan testing organization, examined student proficiency results
in 14 states against a common standard. In each of the 14 states,
1,000 students completed their mandated state assessment and then,
within a month, sat for an NWEA test. Next, NWEA benchmarked the state
tests against its common scale.

The results are eye-popping. Students with exactly the same skills can
be categorized as proficient in one state and failures in the next.
Even in the same states, standards for the same subject are
inconsistent across grades, since standards for each grade are set in
isolation. Across states and subjects, it's hard to find rhyme or
reason in these standards.

Here's what that means for you and your children. Want to vastly
improve the chances of your children getting a diploma? Move to
California, Colorado or Texas. In those states, 80 percent or more of
American students could be expected to meet state proficiency
requirements. Here at home, on the other hand, WASL math standards set
the bar too high for three-quarters of all American students.

Finally, remember that experts on evaluation and testing universally
hold that using a single test to make high-stakes decisions about
students amounts to educational malpractice. WASL commits the mortal
sin of "single testing" not once, but four times serially. When each
of the tests becomes an individual sieve, it's not surprising that
very few students emerge with a diploma after twelve years.

So it's good news that state leaders are rethinking these issues. The
year 2008 will be on us before we know it. State leaders would be
well-advised to move smartly. Otherwise, instead of meeting grinning
seniors on graduation stages, they're likely to be facing grim parents
in courts of law.


James Harvey, senior fellow at the Evans School's Center on
Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, is
co-author of "A Legacy of Learning" (Brookings Institution Press). He
can be reached at harvey324@earthlink.net