Testing — Standardized and Assessment

With the implementation of education reform have come a myriad of new tests — most specifically assessments. But whether a standardized achievement test, such as the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) or a myriad of others available from testing companies, or the assessments (known in Washington state as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning — the WASL), parents are being lead to believe that the test is mandatory — that the child must take it.

This is not true. There is no law in Washington state that mandates that the child must participate in either a standardized achievement test or the WASL. Any parent who is told this by a teacher or administrator should request a copy of the law so stipulating.

The flip side of the coin, for 10th graders especially, is that the WASL is the foundation for receiving the Certificate of Mastery. Without the Certificate of Mastery, the child will not be able to get a job or go on to higher education. No law currently excludes home schooled children or private schooled children from this eventuality.

In the day and age of schools looking for any excuse to label a child "at risk," parents are advised, when exempting their child from the WASL or a standardized achievement test, to not state the reason as "refusal", but rather simply as "absent." Many children are being labeled "opposition defiant" when parents object to school practices, tests, and procedures.

©September 1998; Lynn M Stuter

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