PEN’s reply to John Laird of the Columbian’s article on FAMAWASL (fathers
against mothers against WASL)
Opinion - Finally, an
activist group worth joining
by John Laird
My inability to muster activists can be traced back to the NCAA, and I'm not
talking about the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Several years ago at another newspaper I became perturbed when a fellow
columnist cooingly informed her readers that, while she was away on vacation,
her cat missed her. Awwwww.
She became highly incensed when I blasphemously pointed out that her cat was
just a cat, nothing more. And she became downright furious when I wrote a
column announcing the formation of an activist group known as "No Cats
Anywhere in America" (NCAA). Of course, all hell broke loose as countless
feline fetishists excoriated my group, waving clippings of newspaper stories
about animal cruelty and shrieking, "See what you've caused!" After
several dozen smart-alecky column notes over the next few years, I finally gave
up on my NCAA.
Undaunted by that failure, I hereby announce the formation of another activist
group. This one, too, is retaliatory. It's meant to compensate for all the
incessant, infernal whining from a group that's much smaller and less relevant
than its piercing protests would seem to indicate.
Might you be interested in joining my new group? "Fathers Against Mothers Against WASL"?
Instead of relying on a Web site and bumper stickers, FAMAWASL relies on sheer
logic. To join, you simply need to repeat the Official FAMAWASL Creed:
* I believe that any kid who thinks Elvis Presley was named after Elvis
Costello should not receive a high school diploma.
* I believe in diversity. I celebrate the fact that, just as fathers may join
Mothers Against WASL, mothers may join my FAMAWASL.
* I believe that taxpayers deserve proof that schools are succeeding, and that
the Washington Assessment of Student Learning is a good, albeit imperfect, tool
for measuring that success.
* I believe that requiring a 12th-grader who has been passing tests for 12
years to pass a 10th-grade WASL in order to receive a high school diploma is
fair and reasonable.
* I believe that this requirement is even more reasonable when school officials
bend over backward trying to help that student with remedial classes and
multiple re-takes of the WASL.
* I believe that the question, "What are you going to do about that
failing grade?" should not be directed first to a teacher or a principal
or a counselor or a coach or a superintendent or a school board member or bus
driver or a cafeteria worker or a school janitor. It should be directed first
to the failing student.
* I believe that when a kid ditches a class, the parent should not barge into
the school office or classroom and start acting belligerent. I believe the
parent should barge into the student's bedroom, turn off the video game, wake
up the student and start acting belligerent.
* I believe that whenever we raise the academic bar for students, they always
rise to meet those greater expectations. Call it evolution or creationism, but
this is what makes our kids better than the chimpanzees' kids.
* I believe that not all students are meant to receive a high school diploma.
If a 100 percent graduation rate is our goal, then we might as well stop giving
all tests in schools and start handing out diplomas like breath mints.
* I believe social promotion is a social disease.
* I believe that when we give a diploma (and I do mean "give") to a
student who doesn't deserve one, it's grossly unfair and insulting to every
hard-working student who does deserve one.
* I believe the first responsibility for passing the WASL belongs to the child,
the second responsibility belongs to the parent and all other responsibilities
don't matter nearly as much as those two.
* I believe that parents who whimper, "Some kids just aren't good
test-takers," might have a point. Still, if those same kids can't pass a
driver's test, they won't become drivers; if they can't pass the bar exam, they
won't become lawyers; and if they can't pass an eye test, they won't become
jet-fighter pilots. Regardless, they'll find a way to survive.
* I believe that harsh as it might sound one of the best counseling tactics
that parents and teachers can use for students is expressed in the old Joan
Rivers line: "Oh, grow up!"
John Laird is The Columbian's editorial page editor.
john.laird@columbian.com.
Reply
Dear Mr. Laird,
PEN/MAW appreciates the open debate on your editorial pages. Please accept and
publish the following op ed as our rebuttal to your
recent column on starting FAMAWASL. You have my permission to publish it in
both the print edition and the online Columbian.
Thank you.
Juanita Doyon, Director
Parent Empowerment Network
------------------------
Gandhi said, “First they ignore you; then they laugh at you; then they fight
you; [then editorial page editors write attack pieces]; then you win!” Thank
you, Mr. Laird. You've given Mothers Against WASL a
sign.
When I attended public high school in the 1970’s, I learned important lessons
about propaganda. I hope today’s public schools are teaching these same
lessons, but I fear they have been set aside for WASL prep. Today’s propaganda
of the Washington Roundtable and Office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction, most often expressed through their conduit of editorial boards, is
that those of us fighting the test (including Mothers Against WASL and its
organizing nonprofit, Parent Empowerment Network (PEN)) are against high
standards and expectations for students. Bologna!
Obviously, there is a large number of editorial boards
in the state that don't understand the difference between the standards and the
measurement of those standards. WASL is a flawed measurement. That is why we
call ourselves, Mothers Against WASL. If we were
against standards, we would use a different name, like Mothers Against EALRS (Essential Academic Learning Requirements).
Isn't it interesting that we “whining mothers” know the difference? We hold
ourselves and our children to a high standard of knowledge acquisition.
Further study of half truths du jour, reveals the WASLholics line of choice: “Students are graduating without
being able to read.” Was this not the rallying cry of the Business Roundtable
13 years ago when standards-based, test-‘em-to-death
education reform was born? If Johnny and Mary still can't read, what about WASL
is working, after an outpouring of hundreds of millions of dollars on WASL
prep?
Our current state superintendent, who was endorsed by this paper’s editorial
board, has presided over state education reform for all of those 13 years,
first as the head of the Commission on Student Learning and then as
superintendent. She most recently used the “kids can't read” line in her annual
“state of education” speech. I don't know of any parent who would admit 13 years
of failure in a child’s life with the level of chutzpa that
Terry Bergeson has displayed in admitting this huge
failure of her WASL plan.
Dr. Linda Mabry, WSU Vancouver, suggests the WASL misrepresents our students.
“…we have had the highest SAT scores for two consecutive years among those
states in which more than half of high school students take the SAT, yet only
about a third of these same students are scored as proficient on the state’s
standards-based test… Does this not suggest measurement error somewhere?”
Since the inception of widespread high-school exit exams in the 1990s, several
of the 25 states that originally signed on to the philosophy of high-sakes
testing have backed away from using a single test to
determine graduation. Of those clinging to a single test as their high school
gatekeeper, the majority have seen a decline in graduation rate. The current
graduation rate in Washington State is just 67 percent. Must Washington repeat
the mistakes of other states that have increased dropout rates with their
single test policies?
In our quest for true accountability shared by the state, school districts,
teachers, parents, and students, PEN is working with educational experts
throughout the country. We have been in contact with the state Education
Commissioner of Nebraska, Dr. Doug Christensen, and are looking at his state’s
School-based Teacher-led Assessment and Reporting System (STARS). Dr.
Christensen writes, “…things that involve state testing, high-stakes
accountability and punitive accountability are not right, will not do us any
good and will not get us where we want to go. In fact, there is a potential to
do great harm to children.”
Washington’s 13 years of test-based accountability has proven Dr. Christensen’s
statement true. After 13 years of reform affecting an entire generation of
children, the math and reading skills of our students have apparently not
improved one iota. In fact, students who need the most help have been ignored
in the pursuit of improved WASL pass rates. Students in the lower quartile are
passed over because they have no chance to bring up the average. PEN calls this
“educational triage.” Put another way, it is discrimination and educational
abuse.
— John Laird and Juanita Doyon
Columbian
http://www.columbian.com/printArticle.cfm?story=50862