School administrators suspend a fourth-grader who balks at a WASL item:
Tyler Stoken is 9 years old and his mother says he's good at taking tests. But when it came to the recent Washington Assessment of Student Learning, one question stumped him. He was asked to write a short essay about a make-believe situation and his principal.Tyler paraphrases the question saying, "You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window. In several paragraphs write what happens next." He's asked, "So why didn't you answer that question?" He says, "I couldn't think of what to write the essay without making fun of the principal."
He refused to answer the question even after his mother was called to the school. Tyler's mother Amy Wolfe says, "And he said he didn't know the answer. He just didn't know what to write. And they were telling me to make him answer the question."
He still didn't, so Tyler was given a 5-day suspension. In the letter that went home to mother, the principal writes, "The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination."
Amy and her son were shocked. Just then the phone rang. It was the superintendent calling to apologize. "Because I think a mistake was made and over reacting to Tyler's refusal to complete the test," said Aberdeen school superintendent Marty Kay. He says it points to the bigger issue of how much pressure is placed on students and staff to do well in the WASL.
The last I checked, no test in the world required every single examinee to get every answer correct, or even to answer every single item. Refusing to answer one item is not the same thing as refusing to take the test. The school's mistake was appalling, but equally appalling is the "excuse" that the WASL places too much pressure on the staff. This sort of nonsense plays right into the hands of testing critics, as well it should.
This shouldn't turn people against the WASL - it should turn parents against administrators who think badgering kids is the only way to raise WASL scores.
Via Morons.Org.
Posted by kswygert at May 13, 2005 03:16 PM