WASL: Truth be known

Seventy-five percent of kids who pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning will become millionaires.

"It really is a path to happiness and prosperity," says Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson.

See through our charade yet? We just made up a statistical fact and manufactured an expert quote to begin this editorial about an especially suspicious standard on the state's standardized test.

What's the harm? Plenty.

Some teachers are chagrined that state officials are encouraging them to coach students that they can make up facts, figures, quotes and experts as they write persuasive essays during the WASL test. In other words, they can turn their nonfiction work into a complete work of fiction.

It doesn't test a student's skill at persuasive writing; it tests their baloney-manufacturing ability.

The information first appeared in a PowerPoint presentation that was to be shared with 10th-grade students who fail the spring WASL test. The rationale is that students, confined in the testing room without access to reference materials or phones, can't do the research for their essay.

Never mind that anyone pulling such a stunt on any high-school or college essay test would get a flunking grade, possibly be punished for cheating.

When teachers raised concerns, the superintendent's office said it would remove the suggestions from its PowerPoint but still encourages teachers to tell students it's all right to make up facts, but only during the WASL.

Rearranging our ethics for a test starts us down the road of adjusting our ethical behavior to fit our needs. That is a bad lesson.