Parents in Washington push to view WASL tests

By Juanita Doyon

Every parent in the country should be making a simple request to their school district: I would like to view my child’s test. We have that right.
Here in Washington State, over the past month, our newly formed nonprofit, Parent Empowerment Network (PEN), has forced change in state policy.

Previously, parents were told they could not view their child’s WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) test. But, thanks to the research of Dr. Donald Orlich, professor emeritus, Washington State University, we have armed ourselves with a Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Memorandum on test protocol and parental rights and are now, slowly but surely, being allowed viewing rights. The brand new state-developed request form can be found on our website: www. mothers against wasl. org

Voila! Federal law overrides state policy. State assessment officials aren’t sure where some testing documents are located and have said that some may have been destroyed. For eight years, WASL sections have been sent in three different directions for scoring — bubble-ins being sent to one state, short answers to another, essays to another. I’ll be requesting my twins’ scored 4th grade tests, from 1998, shortly. Were they shredded? How should we word the class action lawsuit?

De Anna Winterrose, of Richland, WA, recently viewed the yet-to-be-scored, WASL tests her children had completed this year. In order that she could do this, she signed, “under duress,” a nondisclosure statement. The test viewing had been stalled, so that a state-level assessment official could be present. Parents are not to be trusted. But then, neither are teachers, principals, students or district administrators. All this agitative consultant can say is, the state assessment people better update their frequent flyer plans, with all the parental requests that will come in when the scores come out next fall. WASL becomes a graduation requirement for next year’s 10th graders. We’ve only just begun to fight.
De Anna’s main observation: “After three hours of reading the test (and yes, there were many times when I had to force myself to go back and re-read, because it was BORING) I was left with this distinct impression: The WASL is not a test of knowledge, rather a test of attention. Those of you who are blessed with this gift will do well, those of us who are not will never be able to show our true knowledge, especially if the test continues to be hidden from educators/parents.”

The entire FERPA Memorandum can be found at www.fetaweb.com /04/ferpa.rooker.ltr. protocols.htm 