Rebuttal to the times......

[Juanita Doyon <Jedoyon@AOL.COM>]

Seattle Times-- March 5, 2001
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SeattleTimes.woa/wa/gotoAr

ticle?zsection_id=268448410&text_only=0&slug=tuelets06&document_id=134272280

Costly smokescreen

"The Legislature is beginning to wobble over the WASL" for good reason.
High-stakes testing is getting the thumbs-down from informed activist groups
of parents and teachers nationwide. Lawsuits have been won by plaintiffs in
cases of test misuse and abuse. WASL has proven itself unreliable, invalid
and wasteful.

The use of WASL, or any other test for high stakes, says that parents and
teachers aren't trusted in the education of children. It sidesteps the true
problems that exist to hamper student achievement, such as teacher shortage,
classroom shortage, supply shortage, poor communication and the waste of our
education dollars due to a layered educational bureaucracy, headed by our
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

The WASL test itself has cost millions of dollars that could have been
utilized to bring about true learning improvement for students. The passage
of I-728 sent a clear message that voters want smaller class size. What
voters may not have realized is that many districts have no empty classrooms
and that it is nearly impossible to find teachers to cover the number of
classes we have now.

If OSPI continues to blindly insist that WASL is the way, it is up to our
legislators to assure that the interests of their constituents are served,
rather than continuing to fund a grandiose testing scheme, which has no
supporting research behind it.

-- Juanita Doyon, Spanaway

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the ARN-L list, send command SIGNOFF ARN-L
to LISTSERV@LISTS.CUA.EDU.