Rising to the WASL challenge

If I could write a bill of rights for Washington's high-school students, it would look like this:

• Students deserve to graduate with a meaningful diploma that reflects mastery of the skills and knowledge they'll need to succeed in college, the workplace and their communities.

• They deserve a fair assessment system that measures achievement and identifies areas for improvement.

• They deserve opportunities for remediation if they need a boost in certain subjects.

• They deserve well-prepared, high-quality teachers who are passionate about their work.

• They deserve a well-rounded curriculum that prepares them to compete nationally and internationally.

How legislators and education stakeholders make this wish list a reality will be debated this session. The crux is whether the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) should remain a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2008.

I spent much of this past summer and fall traveling around Washington, speaking with parents, students, teachers, principals and superintendents. The message I took away was that, regardless of their opinion of the WASL, everyone involved has the same goal. We all want our children to flourish beyond high school.

As legislators open a conversation this session about the future of the WASL as a high-stakes test, I hope we keep this goal in mind. This is not simply a question of passing one test. Education reform has always been about making sure our children can compete with the best and the brightest in our nation and the world. It's about believing that our children are capable of meeting high expectations, and knowing that they will be more productive members of society for it.

As a mother, grandmother and former school board member, I've seen firsthand how students thrive when they're given the attention they need.

I've also seen what can happen when they aren't. After some of my children were diagnosed with dyslexia, we struggled to find adequate services within the public-school system. It was an experience that led me to run for school board, and later, for the state Senate.

I found that we can expect our children to achieve great things only if we give them the proper tools — whatever their learning style or socioeconomic status. This is what the 2006 legislative session will be about. Students need help reaching the higher academic standards, and opportunities to demonstrate their achievement.

This session, lawmakers must:

• Devote additional resources to remediation for struggling students.

• Increase professional-development opportunities. Educators are our best allies in the effort to put high academic achievement within the reach of every student.

• Carefully consider the proposed alternative assessments, and accept them only if they offer a rigorous alternative for students who don't do well on traditional pen-and-paper tests.

• Consider implementing a "certificate of academic progress" for students who have completed all graduation requirements except the WASL, so that students may participate in graduation ceremonies so long as they have a plan for earning their diploma.

• Consider other proposals giving students the opportunity to demonstrate they've met standards.

Some are calling for postponing — or abandoning — the WASL as a graduation requirement. While we shouldn't go back on education reform, we also must acknowledge that we don't have all the answers yet. Education reform in our state began in the early 1990s, and this evolving process continues today. But we are moving in the right direction. The percentage of 10th-graders meeting the standard in all three subjects (reading, writing and math) has steadily increased since 2001.

High academic standards — and a way to measure achievement — are the future of public education. Having them in place sharpens our focus on what students and teachers need. According to the national Center for Education Policy, seven out of 10 high-school students nationwide will take mandatory exit exams by 2009.

In a recent Seattle Times Sunday Opinion commentary, former Gov. Booth Gardner asserted, "It is wrong to have a single test that tries to measure all that matters in a young person's education."

He's absolutely right. It would be foolhardy to boil 12 years of learning down to one test. That's why legislators have worked to put in place a system that measures students' skills and knowledge in a variety of ways — and why it is crucial for us to listen to stakeholders this session as we determine the best course of action for Washington.

My granddaughter is part of the class of 2008. When she and her peers statewide don their caps and gowns, I want them to be handed a piece of paper that signifies their hard work and preparedness for the next step in life. If we shortchange our students, we shortchange our future.