Superintendents support fewer tests

SOUTH COUNTY — South County school superintendents are in agreement with the Washington State House of Representatives that fewer standardized tests would be better for high school students.

The House has passed a bill to reduce the required number of standardized tests for high school students. The bill passed out of the House with bipartisan support, with a vote of 87-10, and one excused.

This move did not surprise Royal Superintendent Rose Search. She suspected for years that leaders in education would some day change course.

“Teachers were often asking when they were going to get a chance to teach,” she said.

Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg, supports the bill. He believes students should be assessed through a series of smaller tests, instead of the large standardized tests currently used.

“High school students take too many tests right now,” he said.

Wahluke Superintendent Aaron Chavez said: “I agree with Rep. Manweller that our students are taking too many big tests. Smaller tests make a lot of sense. The savings from not taking these end-of-year exams is substantial, and it could be used to fully fund public education.”

According to the fiscal note for this bill, the total savings would be around $43.7 million.

The bill, HB 2214, eliminates the requirement that students pass the biology end-of-course (EOC) in order to graduate. HB 2214 also discontinues the 10th-grade reading, writing, and mathematics assessments.

The biology requirement was the biggest downfall for several Wahluke seniors last year, and some did not graduate. Former Principal Jeff Pietila was asking legislators then to scale back the requirements. Too many students were being left behind.

“I still think it’s too much,” said Pietila, who is now the superintendent-principal at the LaCrosse School District.

“We had to build collection of evidence courses for about 30 students,” he added. “All of this testing keeps us from offering courses we’d like to offer, like music and fine art.”

Ironically, all of this standardized testing resulted from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It called for accountability in the core subjects of reading, writing and math. Washington reacted by creating exams that even most teachers couldn’t pass.

Instead of easing up after all of the complaints from parents and educators, the state doubled down. Congress gutted No Child Left Behind in 2015 and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act.