By Doug Selwyn and Bob Howard
In 1993, the State of Washington passed legislation, HB1209, to create new curriculum standards and a new assessment system. The bill required that the state test all students at the end of fourth, seventh, and tenth grades, with the tenth grade test serving as a gatekeeper to graduation. Students had to pass all sections of what came to be called the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) in tenth grade or they could not graduate, no matter their grade point average, teacher recommendations, involvement in service projects or school activities, other school achievements, or test scores on other exams (e.g., SAT) This was true for all students, including those in special education, English Language Learner programs, students whose families moved often, and students who were homeless.
The Washington Assessment of Student Learning
The Commission on Student Learning brought teachers and community members together to develop learning standards for students in the different disciplines, and then hired a private contractor, Riverside Publishing, to develop the Washington Assessment of Student Learning based on the new curriculum standards. Riverside Publishing included this caveat to the use of the test they had created:
While school and district scores may be useful in curriculum and instructional planning, it is important to exercise extreme caution when interpreting individual reports… Scores from one test given on a single occasion should never be used to make important decisions about students’ placement, the type of instruction they receive, or retention in a given grade level in school. It is important to corroborate individual scores on WASL tests with classroom-based and other local evidence of student learning such as scores from district testing programs. When making decisions about individuals, multiple sources of information should be used. Multiple individuals who are familiar with the student’s progress and achievement – including parents, teachers, school counselors, school psychologists, specialist teachers, and perhaps the students themselves – should be brought together to collaboratively make such decisions.
As already mentioned, the state’s intention for the WASL was exactly what this caveat warns against.
Doug Selwyn tells of his experience with the WASL:
"I taught a fourth/fifth grade class at an elementary school in Seattle. Approximately two-thirds of the students at the school were on free and reduced lunch, and nearly that same number came from families who did not speak English at home as a first language. The students were bright, curious, creative, cooperative, and willing to work hard. They produced academic work throughout the year that made it clear they were learning the skills and content required of them, demonstrating what they had learned through a wide array of assignments, discussions, and projects.
"We teachers expected that the WASL would be a challenge for many of our students, but we could not imagine how bad it would turn out to be. It was a disaster.
"Our students took more than two weeks to complete the WASL. For most of the WASL sections, we would test in the mornings and recover in the afternoons. However, on the writing portions of the test many of our nine-and ten year-old students worked from nine until three to finish the complete writing cycle in one sitting, as required by the test. By the last days of testing, students were in tears, humiliated and defeated, and they returned to their classrooms stunned by the experience."
I-780
We (along with David Marshak, professor emeritus of education at Seattle University) were so concerned about the impact that the WASL was having that we decided to file a citizen’s initiative, I-780, in January 2002. The press release announcing the initiative read as follows:
A group of Washington State educators has filed an initiative, I-780, that requires any candidate running for any local or statewide office in Washington to take the same high stakes test required of all tenth grade students, and to post their scores in the Voter’s Pamphlet and on the Secretary of State’s web site. The details of I-780 . . . are:
Anyone running for any local or statewide office in the state will take all sections of the tenth grade WASL (the Washington Assessment of Student Learning), at their own expense. The tests will be offered in proctored sites around the state and will be scored by the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Scores will be posted in the Voter’s Pamphlet provided before elections, and on the Secretary of State’s web site. There are no requirements that candidates must pass all or any sections of the test, but they must complete the WASL and post their scores.
Gathering Signatures
When we decided to file the initiative, the three of us had neither adequate time nor money sufficient to support our campaign. We hoped that educators, students and their family members, and other concerned citizens across the state would gather the signatures necessary to place the initiative on the ballot in November. More importantly, we hoped that I-780 would stimulate conversations about the WASL and the harm it was doing.
What we failed to predict was the degree of fear that was rampant within the education community. During the I-780 campaign, we became aware of how intense and pervasive that fear was.
When Doug was on the street gathering signatures, teachers would race over to sign, thanking us for our work. Here is the way Seattle Post Intelligencer reporter Rebekah Denn (2002) described the scene when he went out on the streets for the first time:
Minutes after Doug Selwyn started gathering signatures for Initiative 780 at Safeco Field, the teachers emerged from the crowd with their pens in hand.
“I’m a fourth-grade teacher. Let me sign that thing,” one demanded.
In just a few weeks, fourth-, seventh- and 10th-grade teachers around the state will administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the standardized test that will be required for high school graduation by 2008.
And Selwyn, a former Seattle Public Schools teacher and an education professor at Antioch University, has banded with two other education professors to sponsor I-780, which would require anyone running for state or local office to take the 10th-grade version of the test – and to have their scores published in the voters’ elections guide.
It’s an idea that triggered more than a few snickers as Selwyn gathered signatures, but it drew plenty of signatures along with the laughs, particularly from people who either taught in the schools or had connections to those who did…
“The politicians are asking the children to do something the politicians know nothing about,” said teacher Dawn McGhan, as she took a handful of blank petitions to circulate in her southeastern Washington town….
Co-sponsor Bob Howard, an assistant professor at the University of Washington-Tacoma said 200,000 signatures may be unrealistic for a volunteer effort.
“If we don’t get 200,000 signatures, I hope we create 200,000 conversations, or 200,000 reflective moments.”
Doug reflects on this experience:
"What was surprising was the response I got when I encouraged teachers and others to take blank petitions so they could gather signatures back in their communities. The great majority said they would love to but they could not because they would be placing themselves at great risk by doing so. Many of them replied that their administrations would punish them, no matter whether it was legal or not. Fear was rampant in districts across the state, from top to bottom."
The State’s largest newspapers editorialized against I-780. Peter Callaghan, a columnist in the Tacoma News Tribune, wrote against I-780 in an article titled “Initiative 780 is meant to humiliate, not educate.”
Bob Howard chose to respond by sending a letter to the columnist, making it clear that our intent was not to humiliate, or attack the system, as Mr. Callaghan’s column asserted, nor to avoid accountability. He said, “None of the sponsors of I-780 opposes assessment of students’ knowledge and skills. None of us oppose accountability for educators—teachers, administrators, and university professors. It is simply a question of how best and most fairly to do it.”
Doug Selwyn’s response to Callaghan’s column took the form of an op-ed in the Tacoma News-Tribune. Doug made the following points in that opinion piece.
We have grave concerns about what has happened in schools around the state as a consequence of this high-stakes policy, and we are concerned that there is an absence of real dialogue about the very serious damage being done to our students in the name of education reform.
Our purposes for filing Initiative 780 are relatively simple.
* We want an end to high-stakes testing…There is no one test or measure that can accurately reflect who someone is or what he or she knows or can do.
* We want educators to make use of an array of assessments to make decisions about who will graduate. We want those who make this crucial decision to consider as much information as possible about each student.
* The educational resources of the state should be focused on serving the educational needs of our students and educators rather than lining the pockets of testing companies and consultants. The state has spent around $100 million in pursuit of the development and scoring of the WASL, even as funding per student has gone down when adjusted for inflation….
If we are so worried about humiliating or embarrassing adults, why aren’t we concerned in those same ways about how we treat our own children?
The Impact of I-780
During the Vietnam War a group of anti-war activists put up posters around Philadelphia, where I was living, announcing that they were going to napalm a dog. The city officials were beside themselves with outrage over this cruel and senseless act, and on the appointed day, at the appointed hour, they and the police were on hand, at the ready. Of course the group had no intention of napalming a dog, but when the news crews and officials showed up group members made a statement, asking why there was such a strong reaction to the possibility of napalming a dog while there was virtual silence as the United States military was napalming human beings by the thousands.
Don Fels, an artist, says one the functions of art is to get people to see things differently, which you can’t do if you just present them with what they already know and expect. You have to do something that surprises them, that causes them to look again at what had been familiar. That’s what we tried to do with Initiative 780; by pushing the consequences of the testing agenda to a (possibly) logical extreme, we offered the public the opportunity to think a bit more critically and deeply about the WASL, and about what we were doing to our children by making it a graduation requirement. If we didn’t think it relevant for our elected officials, why was it required for our students?
Final Thoughts
Three university professors with very little time, virtually no budget, and a deep concern about the state of education in Washington State found a creative approach to act on our concerns. While we didn’t threaten to napalm a dog, we did find a way to make an offer to the media they could not refuse, which enabled us to stimulate critical conversations about high stakes testing across the state of Washington, and in fact across the country. Despite the climate of fear that engulfed the educational community, we helped to give voice to the concerns of students, educators, and families being harmed by the testing. Many legislators in Olympia wondered out loud (some with amusement, others with irritation) whether they could pass the tests they were requiring Washington’s high school students to pass, and this pushed many to consider again (or perhaps for the first time) the impact of the laws (regarding high stakes testing) that they had passed, at the request of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Our mix of deep concern, a creative idea, and a willingness to act on that idea made a difference.
Doug Selwyn is a professor of education at SUNY-Plattsburgh. His most recent book is Following the Threads: Bringing Inquiry Research to the Classroom, published by Peter Lang.
Bob Howard was an assistant professor of education at the University of Washington, Tacoma. He passed away after a brief illness in 2011.
