Students voice WASL opposition

In one of the videos created by Rainier Beach High School freshmen to raise concerns about the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), students hold up signs to a camera. The message: That using the test as a graduation requirement is a bad idea.

"I thought we were the future," says one sign.

"What about students' lives?" asks another.

Others have put time and effort into promoting the WASL, including the state's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. It trained about 170 students this year to promote the value of the standardized test to classmates in many other schools.

But the Rainier Beach students, part of the first class that will have to pass the WASL to graduate, hope to air the opposite view. As part of a media-literacy unit in their honors humanities class, they've produced eight short public-service announcements.

Yesterday they held a news conference in the Seattle school's performing-arts center, and showed the videos publicly last night. They also are talking with KCTS, the Seattle public-broadcasting station, about airing them.

And they didn't waver from their message yesterday, even as reporters peppered them with challenging questions: Why is it bad to feel stress about the test? Couldn't the WASL help motivate students to study harder? Don't students need to keep up with students from other countries?

The students' concern — shared by their teacher, Paula Scott — is that their whole lives can hinge on one test.

"What do you think the kids are going to do if they don't pass the WASL?" wondered Timothy Butler, 15.

Angenette Alexander-Royster, 16, said she worries about the WASL because she often doesn't do well on tests, even though she studies.

This year's freshmen across the state will be the first to be required to pass the WASL to graduate. They'll have five opportunities to take the reading, writing and math parts of the test. If they still don't pass all of those, they can take an "alternative assessment," which is now under development.

WASL backers say it's a way to ensure that all graduates are proficient in subjects key to their future success.

The Rainier Beach project came about when Faiza Baker-Yeboah, who works at Central House, a local nonprofit organization with several youth programs, heard the students talking about a test that was nearly a year away. She asked whether they wanted to do something on the WASL as part of the media-literacy unit she was teaching at Rainier Beach.

The Rainier Beach freshmen took the WASL in the 4th and 7th grades, so they have a good idea what it's like.

They put about two weeks of research into the project and broke into smaller groups to create the public-service spots.

One goal of the project was to help students use media to make their voices heard.

Judging from the half-dozen TV, radio and newspaper reporters who showed up for the students' press event yesterday, they've already succeeded.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com