Re: [h-bd] Testimony against WASL attach to diploma bill

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

We should restore the dignity of getting a D. This 
"you've got to get honors or die" ethic is stolen from the
Chinese and Indians.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Woodhill [mailto:jim@thewoodhills.com]
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 7:47 AM
To: Arthur Hu
Cc: Wa-Ed; Arn-L; Educationloop; H-Bd@Yahoogroups. Com;
lshaw@seattletimes.com; elacitis@seattletimes.com;
dave.ross@kiroradio.com; kirbyw@fisherradio.com; johnc@fisherradio.com;
RHumphries@fisherradio.com; Catherine Hawley
Subject: Re: [h-bd] Testimony against WASL attach to diploma bill


Arthur,

      > A public school which admits all should have no exit
      > performance standards.

You mean, "forces all to attend", don't you?

I don't agree that "no exit performance standards" means "no exit 
performance measurement".

      > 12 years of effort should earn a diploma.

I don't believe that additional years of schooling should be 
inflicted on a student who made no progress in previous years, much 
less that the cost of same should be born by the taxpayers. 
Conventional "school" should be reserved for those who are "learning".

      > Grades and SAT scores will differentiate between
      > the D average slackers and the Ivy League contenders.

It is the lack of honest grading that makes NAEP-style testing 
mandatory.  We have schools giving "C"s to 16-year-old illiterates. 
Obviously, though, the tests can't be absurd, as you describe the 
WASL.

Jim Woodhill


Grades and SAT
scores will differentiate between the D average slackers and the Ivy
League contenders. One passing score for all is the definition of
mediocrity.



At 12:59 AM -0800 2/20/04, Arthur Hu wrote:
>From: Arthur Hu 12422 107th pl NE Kirkland WA 98034 (45th District)
>2/20/2004
>arthurhu @ comcast.net 425-891-2619
>To the Senate Education Committee re:
>THIRD ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2195
>
>This bill does not fix the WASL. It casts into stone the educational
>malpractice of basing graduation on a test which fails above-average
>students. "Outcome based" education replaces the age 18 diploma with a
>age 16 Certificate of Initial Mastery .
>
>Standardized testing firms and the WASL technical document warn that
>no high-stakes decision should depend on one passing one arbitrary
>test score. This is as incorrect as 2+2=5.
>
>A public school which admits all should have no exit performance
>standards. 12 years of effort should earn a diploma. Grades and SAT
>scores will differentiate between the D average slackers and the Ivy
>League contenders. One passing score for all is the definition of
>mediocrity.
>
>WASL is beyond all but the top 20% of the population. Half of Mercer
>Island students don't pass. The goals is for fewer than 20% of all to
>fail WASL when 25% of Running Start college level students don't pass.
>The University of Washington would turn away rather than admit many
>like my niece who flunked WASL. Below average students can be coached
>to pass WASL. My school's 4th grade WASL math doubled after my kid
>brought homework identical to live WASL items. Yet my 90th percentile
>son failed "listening" tests which ask "how do you think Noah's sons
>related to one another" rather than "how many days did it rain?".
>
>  "Comparable in rigor" means alternate tests will also doom any who do
>not score as well as affluent native-born white Americans. Blacks
>graduate nationally at the same rate as whites, but with lower test
>scores. WASL failure rates are 2 to 4 times higher for minorities.
>Graduation rates for blacks and whites will fall to pre-civil rights
>era levels when a most whites did not even earn a diploma.
>
>WASL is not based on the GED or any recognized standard of ability.
>The scoring is wrong, and the answers are often wrong, as are the
>annual faulty items. The math doesn't match grade levels, which also
>change because they're wrong. WASL tests very little arithmetic,
>vocabulary, English usage, or science knowledge. My son's 6th grade
>Math book has no decimal or fraction arithmetic instruction, but WASL
>scores are up. In Texas, students play Sisyphus when tests are revised
>to produce high flunk rates once they reach their high pass rates.
>
>WASL is a huge waste of money and time, especially if expanded to meet
>NCLB.  Improvement is one thing. But an inhumane train wreck is
>waiting when the legislature will deny diplomas to any student who
>hasn't met some unrealistic reformer's cruel ideal of "adequate
>improvement".
>
>
>
>
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