PRESS
RELEASE—For release at
OSPI
Concedes to Parent Empowerment Network Request. WASL-attached
Student
Survey Canceled.
Contact: Juanita Doyon, Director, Parent Empowerment
Network, Spanaway, 253/973-1593
Shelley Anderson, Executive Board Member,
Lisa
Sampson, Executive Board Member, Vancouver, 360/608-4896
Rachel DeBellis, Executive Board Member, Marysville, 360-708-9323
With
full-scale WASL testing set to begin Monday, the Office of Superintendent of
Public Instruction has finally relinquished plans to administer a student
survey which is attached to the WASL tests of hundreds of thousands of students
in grades 3-8 and 10. OSPI plans to send a bulletin to the state’s 296 school
districts, before Monday, canceling the survey.
“This
is a great triumph for children and parents,” said Juanita Doyon, Director of
Parent Empowerment Network. “Once again, OSPI had failed to follow well-defined
laws pertaining to parental rights. Fortunately, thanks to alert parents in our
organization, no harm will be done to students. Unfortunately, vital
educational resources have been wrongfully expended on WASL-related waste due
to incompetence on the part of OSPI. Pearson, of recent misgraded SAT fame, is
not off the hook either, since they attached the survey to the test. If this
survey had been administered, federal law would have been broken!”
[In
May 2005, parents, some of them PEN members, forced OSPI to recognize the
federal law that gives parents the right to view their children’s WASL tests.
OSPI had ignored this law for eight years.]
At
the insistence of Parent Empowerment Network, the student survey, which asked
for student identifiable, family invasive information, will not be
administered. Parent Empowerment Network continues to call for the complete
removal of the survey from WASL test booklets.
Upon
discovery that there would be a survey attached to this year’s WASL tests, PEN
members questioned OSPI as to the survey contents. Survey questions were found
to be invasive of family privacy and harmful to the educational well-being of
children.
After
consulting with Dr. Donald Orlich and with Spokane Attorney Jeffry Finer, PEN
Director, Juanita Doyon, sent the following letter to the state superintendent,
on March 24. Jeffry Finer also informed OSPI that the survey was out of
compliance with federal statutes related to survey of human subjects. No
response was received from OSPI, until Mrs. Doyon spoke several times with Assistant
Attorney General David Stolier. After a final, after-hour negotiation call from
Mr. Stolier on Tuesday, April 11, PEN was prepared to seek legal action to stop
the survey. Mrs. Doyon received an email
from Joe Willhoft, Assistant Superintendent, Assessment and Research, on
Wednesday, April 12, stating that, “OSPI has decided to cancel the student
survey portion of this year’s WASL.”
PEN
will hold a press conference in
Dr.
Teresa Bergeson
Office
of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Dear
Dr. Bergeson;
Two
weeks ago, one of our members brought to my attention a set of survey questions
that is to be attached to this year’s WASL tests. Parent Empowerment Network
board members and I have examined all questions for all grade levels and found
them to be inappropriate, invasive, and harmful, so much so, that we are
calling on you to remove the survey from the test and withdraw any plans of
administering these questions to students.
All
questions on the survey breach the rights of both students and parents in the
area of confidentiality. They also ignore the rights of parents to guide their
children in important matters, including future plans for education.
Particularly alarming is the question which asks sixth graders whether they
plan to complete high school. In essence, OSPI is asking 11-year-olds to
predict their own academic failure!
Asking
students to respond to personal questions requires prior written consent from
the parent or guardian. We have reviewed the statement to parents regarding the
student survey included in the 2006 “Aiming High” booklet. Parents have not
necessarily received this latest version of “Aiming High.” In fact our members
inform us that they have received the 2005 version. Regardless, the
notification did not include the specific questions that are on the survey, nor
did it provide parents with a consent form.
Should
you and/or your staff refuse to prevent the distribution and administration of
this survey, Parent Empowerment Network will initiate legal action, calling for
an injunction against your agency’s administration of the survey and the WASL
to which it is attached.
On
behalf of PEN, I am demanding that you respond to our petition by
Sincerely,
Juanita
Doyon, Director
Parent
Empowerment Network
cc
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Governor Christine Gregoire,
Attorney General Rob McKenna