Tacoma Socialist Alternative has begun its' campaign to end the WASL. This standardized test costs Washington tax payers over $100 million a year, and contributes nothing to education. We are currently gathering as much support as we can for a boycott movement in the fall. The following is an excerpt from our informational pamphlet on the WASL. If you are interested in getting involved, email us at ScraptheWASL@gmail.com
What's Wrong with the WASL? and Why We Must Scrap It!
The Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) is a standardized educational assessment run by a private company Pearson Education. It meets requirements of Bush's No Child Left Behind Act and is also used as a high school graduation examination in Washington State.
In 2008, for the first time ever in Washington State history satisfactory completion of the WASL reading and writing examinations was a mandatory high school graduation requirement. Previously, reading, writing, and math were all going to be required, but this plan was jettisoned in 2007 when the failure rate on the math assessment reached 50%.
The WASL is a waste of money, time and resources
Money—Every dollar spent on the WASL is a dollar that is not spent in the classroom. According to research commissioned by the Washington Education Association1, the state of Washington has spent well over one billion dollars on developing, proctoring, and scoring the WASL since 1993.
For the 2006-2007 school year this figure is estimated by the WEA to be $113,602,848. Consider that Seattle Schools face a shortfall of $22 million for 2008-2009, while Tacoma Public School District faces a $6.6 million shortfall.
For a class of twenty-eight seventh graders taking three assessments (Reading, Writing, and Math), this equals $144.96 per student—over $4,050.00 per classroom. Think of how$4,050.00 could be used in your child's classroom.
Time—Because of the long delay between when students take the tests and when the scores come back (four to six months later), the results are useless to classroom teachers for instructional purposes. Teachers are unable to discern what items the student needs remediation on.
Resources—With an emphasis on raising test scores, teachers increasingly teach the same skills over and over for struggling students instead of providing the breadth and depth that students deserve. The WASL rewards rote memorization and formulaic thinking. It is an impediment to the kind of educational reform Washington State actually needs and does nothing to contribute to improved educational outcomes for students.
The WASL means less money for needy schools:
Following the free market logic underlying No Child Left Behind, low performing schools would see a flight of students as parents use vouchers to help pay for private schooling or send their students to “higher performing” schools. A decrease in enrollment at low performing schools would mean a commensurate decrease in the amount of funding available to these schools.
This leads to a paradox where the schools that need the most help and resources will actually get less and less help from the state, thus leading to the eventual collapse of these schools and the demand to weaken public education though privatization.
The WASL stigmatizes working-class and racial minority communities
According to Michael W. Apple, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, only by “eliminating poverty through greater economic parity, establishing effective and much more equal health and housing programs... only by tackling these issues together can substantive progress be made”2 in school reform.
When examining standardized test scores like the WASL it is helpful to understand that scores are highly correlated with socioeconomic status.
The following statistics are for 10th grade math scores in 20043:
At International Community School, Lake Washington School District: 0.5% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, 100% “met standard” on the math section of the WASL.
At Cleveland High School, Seattle: 63% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, 23.1% “met standard” on the math section of the WASL.
Also, an overwhelming majority, nearly three-quarters of the state's African American and Latino students who took the 10th-grade WASL failed at least one the subjects needed to graduate.
In essence, the WASL is an assessment of the level of socioeconomic power and access to additional resources (private tutoring, educated parents, and parental supervision after school) within a community—not of the intellect or achievement of the students therein.
The WASL has been heralded by its supporters as a remedy to the ills of public education in Washington State, when in actuality it has simply exacerbated previous ills and created far more problems than it has solved
We are not against testing and holding schools accountable
Teachers need tests and means for assessing a student’s progress and helping students identify areas of strength and weakness. However, the one-size fits all standardized tests created by corporate interests are completely out of touch with the needs of different students and ultimately counter-productive.
National guidelines for basic curriculum are welcome (as long as they do not stifle teacher and student creativity). But the key is we need to return to teacher evaluation of students because teachers—in consultation with parents, educational planners, and students—know best how to help each individual student develop their skills, confidence, and potential as a fully rounded-out human being.
Campaigning Against the WASL
The way to defeat the WASL is by the public demonstrating its absolute opposition to it. We need to parents, teachers and student to take this message out broadly into the community through a public outreach campaign and organizing school-by-school public meetings.
If students, with the full support of parents, refuse to take the WASL, then there would be no test scores to act upon, The 2009 WASL will fail. We need to raise this threat if the legislature won’t act before then. This would send a very clear message to Olympia that the public wants the WASL scrapped. It would stop any further students being denied graduation due to their test scores in 2009.
The WASL
* A waste of money, time and resources
* It means less money for needy schools
* It ignores class injustice
* It punishes schools for non-school factors
* It stigmatizes working class communities
* It’s a barrier to graduation
Parents, teachers, and students are united.
It’s time for the WASL to go!
Get Involved:
* Build the campaign in your school, and in your community.
* Speak to friends and neighbors.
* Link up with teachers and parents and student in your community.
* Organize a speaker to attend your PTSA or at your school.
Contact the campaign at:
ScraptheWASL@gmail.com.
This flyer was written by teacher, parent and student members of Tacoma Socialist Alternative.
You can reach us Tacomasocialists@gmail.com, our national website is: www. socialistalternative. org.
If you want more information, we have just published an in-depth analysis of the WASL. What’s Wrong with the WASL, and Why we should Scrap it. It is available at $1.50, or we can send you an electronic version.
None of the material we are publishing is copywrited. So feel free to use all or parts of it as part of your own communication about the WASL.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
More resources on Zimbabwe...
At our meeting Monday night we discussed the political situation in Zimbabwe. A recent article entitled The Lion Who Didn't Roar: Why hasn't Nelson Mandela spoken out against Robert Mugabe? by Christopher Hitchens was brought to the attention of the group.Additionally, as a continuing source of information, the blog This is Zimbabwe by the Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation is constantly updated with the latest news on the developing situation there.
SA Yard Sale Fundraiser
Do you have anything you want to get rid of that we can sell at a yard sale?
We are holding our annual yard sale fundraiser to send young activists to an educational social justice conference in Europe. Please donate any items you would like to clear out of your home, or if you would like to support youth activism and social justice! And please pass this onto anyone you know who might want to clear things out of their homes.
HOW TO DONATE ITEMS:
Anything that would sell for as little as $0.50 can be dropped off at anytime on my porch in Wallingford, Seattle at 4418 2nd Ave NE.
If you have items that would sell for over $25.00, email us back or call Joe at (206) 595-0474 to see if one of our members with a car or truck can pick them up.
The yard sale will be on Saturday, June 14 from 9 AM - 2:30 PM in Ballard at 6516 3rd Ave NW (cross street: NW 65th Street). You can drop off items to be sold then, and please come shopping! Our rain date is the next Saturday, June 21st.
If you have items that would sell for over $25.00, email us back or call Joe at (206) 595-0474 to see if one of our members with a car or truck can pick them up.
The yard sale will be on Saturday, June 14 from 9 AM - 2:30 PM in Ballard at 6516 3rd Ave NW (cross street: NW 65th Street). You can drop off items to be sold then, and please come shopping! Our rain date is the next Saturday, June 21st.
WHO WE ARE:
Socialist Alternative along with Youth Against War and Racism have organized numerous walkouts of hundreds of students against the war and military recruitment in schools. When the Tukwila School Board tried to fire 6 Tukwila district teachers for supporting their students in their walkout, we mobilized community support to defend all the teachers' jobs and the principal was forced to resign instead!
We also succeeded in pressuring the Seattle School Board to pass one of the strongest policies against military recruitment in schools in August 2007. Recruiters used to come as they please; now they are only allowed into Seattle public schools twice a year (although we really need people to make sure this policy is being enforced).
We are a multiracial organization with active members involved in the labor movement and other social justice movements, we have weekly educational activist meetings, we publish the newspaper Justice, and we are in solidarity with the Committee for a Workers' International which has sister organizations in 37 countries around the world. For more info: www.SocialistAlternative.org
We also succeeded in pressuring the Seattle School Board to pass one of the strongest policies against military recruitment in schools in August 2007. Recruiters used to come as they please; now they are only allowed into Seattle public schools twice a year (although we really need people to make sure this policy is being enforced).
We are a multiracial organization with active members involved in the labor movement and other social justice movements, we have weekly educational activist meetings, we publish the newspaper Justice, and we are in solidarity with the Committee for a Workers' International which has sister organizations in 37 countries around the world. For more info: www.SocialistAlternative.org
Thanks for your support!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
This Monday at One Heart Cafe (06.09)
Socialist Alternative's regular meeting will be held at a new location:
Our meeting this week will be on Zimbabwe where massive fraud by President Mugabe is threatening to steal the election run-off.
We will have an introduction to the issue followed by a period of discussion.
We will also give feedback on second draft of anti-WASL pamphlet and start discussing how we go forward with the campaign.
The following article is included as background reading on the subject of Zimbabwe:
Mugabe plans to steal election
Mass unemployment, hyper-inflation and poverty
Dave Carr, from The Socialist, weekly paper of the Socialist Party England and Wales.
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party has called for a recount of the votes from the 29 March presidential election – even though the electoral commission has still, after more than one week, to release the figures!
This suggests that president Robert Mugabe was defeated in the election. However, the octogenarian dictator, after 28 years in power, has it seems no intention of conceding defeat to his challenger, Morgan Tsvangarai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Earlier, the MDC had claimed victory (having secured a majority in the parliamentary elections) saying that the tally of results posted outside the polling stations gave Morgan Tsvangarai 50.3% of the vote. However, some foreign media say that sources close to the electoral commission report that the MDC candidate has fallen short of an absolute majority and that an election run-off is likely.
Despite evidence in the first round of Zanu-PF inflating the electoral roll, employing voter intimidation and using food aid as a political tool, a run-off will undoubtedly see an upsurge in political violence directed against the MDC and its supporters. Already the notorious "war veterans" (Mugabe's paid militia) have paraded through the streets of the capital, Harare, issuing threats to the opposition.
Workers' struggles
Since independence in 1980, which ended white minority rule, Mugabe has presided over a catastrophic economic collapse of the country, deploying ever more desperate measures to stay in power.
Mugabe has repeatedly stated that the country's malaise is the result of imperialist intrigues by the former colonial power, Britain. However, it was Mugabe who embraced neo-liberal measures in the 1990s, attacking the living standards of the black majority.
In 1996 a general strike took place by public servants opposed to an effective wage cut and 25,000 job losses carried out by the government at the behest of the International Monetary Fund. The following year landless and impoverished veterans of the guerrilla war confronted Mugabe demanding compensation and pensions.
A shaken Mugabe resorted to the printing presses to pacify protest, fuelling inflation. He also imposed a massive hike in general sales tax. This further inflamed the protests culminating in 'Red Tuesday' on 9 December 1997 when over one million joined an anti-government stay-away general strike.
During this period of struggle an increasingly militant working class had forced the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to break with Zanu-PF. With this link broken a political vacuum opened up, leading to the formation of a political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC mobilised opposition to defeat Mugabe's constitutional change referendum in February 2000. However, the MDC leadership executed a rapid turn to the right with Zimbabwean capitalists and white farmers joining and a right-wing US 'think-tank' - the Freedom Foundation - donating $1 million. Consequently, the MDC adopted the same neo-liberal policies as Mugabe.
Faced with defeat in the June 2000 general election, Mugabe, after 20 years of faithful service to capitalism and imperialism, suddenly became a champion of the dispossessed. He mobilised war veterans of the liberation struggle to forcibly seize land from white farmers and invoked the Law and Order Maintenance Act, inherited from Ian Smith's racist Rhodesia regime, to curb the opposition MDC.
The issue of land ownership is of course a real issue. However, the land invasions weren't part of
a peasant uprising or a comprehensive land reform programme, which would entail the nationalisation not only of the big commercial farms but also the commanding heights of the economy.
Some of the best farms seized were handed over to Mugabe's cronies in the ruling Zanu-PF. The subsistence farmers given land weren't provided with tools or cheap loans for fertilisers and seeds by the government. Later, the war veterans, along with landless squatters, were evicted by police.
Repression
Mugabe and his cronies in Zanu-PF and the state security forces will use a run-off presidential election to politically neuter the MDC opposition and ensure a continuation of their ruinous rule.
However, if the MDC does win the presidency it's debatable whether Mugabe and Zanu-PF will accept such a defeat. They may decide to wage a brutal one-sided civil war, like Mugabe did in Matabeleland in the 1980s against his Zapu opponents. Such a prospect will force more refugees to flee Zimbabwe to South Africa and further abroad.
With 80% unemployment, hyper-inflation of over 100,000%, widespread poverty, food and fuel shortages, and collapsing services, Zimbabwe's working-class is being pulverised. However, there is no alternative but to fight back.
Throughout the last decade, Zimbabwe's workers and peasants have been hamstrung in the struggle to defeat Mugabe's police state by the absence of a mass workers party with a socialist and internationalist programme. The building of such a force is the key task facing Zimbabwe socialists.
For more information, contact Mary Smith @ 253-564-1488
Monday, May 17th @ 6:30 PM
One Heart Cafe'
604 Fawcett Ave.
Tacoma, WA 98402
One Heart Cafe'
604 Fawcett Ave.
Tacoma, WA 98402
Our meeting this week will be on Zimbabwe where massive fraud by President Mugabe is threatening to steal the election run-off.
We will have an introduction to the issue followed by a period of discussion.
We will also give feedback on second draft of anti-WASL pamphlet and start discussing how we go forward with the campaign.
The following article is included as background reading on the subject of Zimbabwe:
Mugabe plans to steal election
Mass unemployment, hyper-inflation and povertyDave Carr, from The Socialist, weekly paper of the Socialist Party England and Wales.
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party has called for a recount of the votes from the 29 March presidential election – even though the electoral commission has still, after more than one week, to release the figures!
This suggests that president Robert Mugabe was defeated in the election. However, the octogenarian dictator, after 28 years in power, has it seems no intention of conceding defeat to his challenger, Morgan Tsvangarai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Earlier, the MDC had claimed victory (having secured a majority in the parliamentary elections) saying that the tally of results posted outside the polling stations gave Morgan Tsvangarai 50.3% of the vote. However, some foreign media say that sources close to the electoral commission report that the MDC candidate has fallen short of an absolute majority and that an election run-off is likely.
Despite evidence in the first round of Zanu-PF inflating the electoral roll, employing voter intimidation and using food aid as a political tool, a run-off will undoubtedly see an upsurge in political violence directed against the MDC and its supporters. Already the notorious "war veterans" (Mugabe's paid militia) have paraded through the streets of the capital, Harare, issuing threats to the opposition.
Workers' struggles
Since independence in 1980, which ended white minority rule, Mugabe has presided over a catastrophic economic collapse of the country, deploying ever more desperate measures to stay in power.
Mugabe has repeatedly stated that the country's malaise is the result of imperialist intrigues by the former colonial power, Britain. However, it was Mugabe who embraced neo-liberal measures in the 1990s, attacking the living standards of the black majority.
In 1996 a general strike took place by public servants opposed to an effective wage cut and 25,000 job losses carried out by the government at the behest of the International Monetary Fund. The following year landless and impoverished veterans of the guerrilla war confronted Mugabe demanding compensation and pensions.
A shaken Mugabe resorted to the printing presses to pacify protest, fuelling inflation. He also imposed a massive hike in general sales tax. This further inflamed the protests culminating in 'Red Tuesday' on 9 December 1997 when over one million joined an anti-government stay-away general strike.
During this period of struggle an increasingly militant working class had forced the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to break with Zanu-PF. With this link broken a political vacuum opened up, leading to the formation of a political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC mobilised opposition to defeat Mugabe's constitutional change referendum in February 2000. However, the MDC leadership executed a rapid turn to the right with Zimbabwean capitalists and white farmers joining and a right-wing US 'think-tank' - the Freedom Foundation - donating $1 million. Consequently, the MDC adopted the same neo-liberal policies as Mugabe.
Faced with defeat in the June 2000 general election, Mugabe, after 20 years of faithful service to capitalism and imperialism, suddenly became a champion of the dispossessed. He mobilised war veterans of the liberation struggle to forcibly seize land from white farmers and invoked the Law and Order Maintenance Act, inherited from Ian Smith's racist Rhodesia regime, to curb the opposition MDC.
The issue of land ownership is of course a real issue. However, the land invasions weren't part of
a peasant uprising or a comprehensive land reform programme, which would entail the nationalisation not only of the big commercial farms but also the commanding heights of the economy.
Some of the best farms seized were handed over to Mugabe's cronies in the ruling Zanu-PF. The subsistence farmers given land weren't provided with tools or cheap loans for fertilisers and seeds by the government. Later, the war veterans, along with landless squatters, were evicted by police.
Repression
Mugabe and his cronies in Zanu-PF and the state security forces will use a run-off presidential election to politically neuter the MDC opposition and ensure a continuation of their ruinous rule.
However, if the MDC does win the presidency it's debatable whether Mugabe and Zanu-PF will accept such a defeat. They may decide to wage a brutal one-sided civil war, like Mugabe did in Matabeleland in the 1980s against his Zapu opponents. Such a prospect will force more refugees to flee Zimbabwe to South Africa and further abroad.
With 80% unemployment, hyper-inflation of over 100,000%, widespread poverty, food and fuel shortages, and collapsing services, Zimbabwe's working-class is being pulverised. However, there is no alternative but to fight back.
Throughout the last decade, Zimbabwe's workers and peasants have been hamstrung in the struggle to defeat Mugabe's police state by the absence of a mass workers party with a socialist and internationalist programme. The building of such a force is the key task facing Zimbabwe socialists.
For more information, contact Mary Smith @ 253-564-1488
Sunday, May 18, 2008
This Monday at One Heart Cafe (05.19)
Socialist Alternative's regular meeting will be held at a new location:
We will be meeting in the back room of One Heart, which is located next door to The Grand Cinema.
Tony will be presenting the topic, 'What is Socialism?'
Join us for an informational lead-off and discussion about socialism and why do we need to change the current political system. This meeting is open to anyone who would like to find out more about the organization.
For more information, contact Mary Smith @ 253-564-1488
Monday, May 17th @ 6:30 PM
One Heart Cafe'
604 Fawcett Ave.
Tacoma, WA 98402
One Heart Cafe'
604 Fawcett Ave.
Tacoma, WA 98402
We will be meeting in the back room of One Heart, which is located next door to The Grand Cinema.
Tony will be presenting the topic, 'What is Socialism?'
Join us for an informational lead-off and discussion about socialism and why do we need to change the current political system. This meeting is open to anyone who would like to find out more about the organization.
For more information, contact Mary Smith @ 253-564-1488
Monday, May 12, 2008
This Monday at the Mandolin (05.12)
Come to Socialist Alternative Meeting on MONDAY at 6.30pm,
Mandolin Cafe, Tacoma
3923 S 12th St.
(Socialist Alternative meeting is held at table at back of the Cafe)
This week we will be discussing the Nader campaign.Mandolin Cafe, Tacoma
3923 S 12th St.
(Socialist Alternative meeting is held at table at back of the Cafe)
This week, also, Nader is speaking at TCC at 1.30 on Wednesday.
We will be looking to distribute more flyers in the next couple of days to attract the best possible turnout. Additionally, Philip Locker will also be speaking from the platform for Socialist Alternative, so anyone attending the meeting will also get some exposure to the ideas of SA.
Come to Socialist Alternative Meeting on MONDAY at 6.30pm.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Ralph Nader in Tacoma
Tacoma SA Proudly Presents the Following Event:
Why support Nader?
A recent poll showed 81% of Americans think the country is headed on the wrong track. Obama has inspired millions of people by speaking out against the war and claiming to refuse money from corporate lobbyists. It's clear ,the overwhelming majority of Americans are yearning for a change from eight years of Bush's corporate war-mongering. But the question is: Can the Democrats deliver the change they are promising?
Beneath Obama's and Clinton's rhetoric, their actual records reveal that they have repeatedly voted to keep the troops in Iraq, and they have received millions upon millions of dollars from big corporations. Come hear Ralph Nader speak and read these articles about why you should support the strongest independent, pro-worker campaign and help us build a movement to end corporate control of our society!
Excellent Articles:
1. By Matt Gonzalez: 'The Obama Craze: Count Me Out' on Counterpunch
2. 'Does Obama Deserve Your Support? Ten Things You Should Know'
3. 'The Obama Mirage: Behind the Rhetoric of Hope and Change'
4. 'Break with the Two Parties of Big Business! Build Nader's Antiwar, Anti-Corporate Campaign'
5. 'Is a Nader vote a wasted vote? The Case against Lesser-Evilism'
We need your help, especially to spread the word:
1. Pass the news on to friends, family, co-workers, classmates right now! Post this announcement on other websites!
2. Lead a team of volunteers to go postering or pass out leaflets together. Pick a time and place you want to meet, bring tape and/or staple hammers, and call Ramy at (206) 293-8389 to get volunteers to go postering together.
3. Let the media know Nader is coming to town and urge them to cover Nader's speech and to interview Nader while he is in town. The media can contact Nader's media team through www.VoteNader.org
4. Volunteer to collect signatures to get Nader on the WA State ballot. Contact Mike Gillis at 206-755-4262 or mikedgillis@hotmail.com
5. Help us find a volunteer who could provide American Sign Language interpretation for Nader's speech for at least 1 person who requested this. Email jessiquadown@gmail.com if you find a volunteer.
Ralph Nader speaks in Tacoma!
Wednesday, May 14th
1:30 PM
Tacoma Community College
Building#3
6501 S. 19th Street
Tacoma 98466
$10 contribution/ $5 student/low-income (No one turned away)
Wednesday, May 14th
1:30 PM
Tacoma Community College
Building#3
6501 S. 19th Street
Tacoma 98466
$10 contribution/ $5 student/low-income (No one turned away)
Why support Nader?
A recent poll showed 81% of Americans think the country is headed on the wrong track. Obama has inspired millions of people by speaking out against the war and claiming to refuse money from corporate lobbyists. It's clear ,the overwhelming majority of Americans are yearning for a change from eight years of Bush's corporate war-mongering. But the question is: Can the Democrats deliver the change they are promising?
Beneath Obama's and Clinton's rhetoric, their actual records reveal that they have repeatedly voted to keep the troops in Iraq, and they have received millions upon millions of dollars from big corporations. Come hear Ralph Nader speak and read these articles about why you should support the strongest independent, pro-worker campaign and help us build a movement to end corporate control of our society!
Excellent Articles:
1. By Matt Gonzalez: 'The Obama Craze: Count Me Out' on Counterpunch
2. 'Does Obama Deserve Your Support? Ten Things You Should Know'
3. 'The Obama Mirage: Behind the Rhetoric of Hope and Change'
4. 'Break with the Two Parties of Big Business! Build Nader's Antiwar, Anti-Corporate Campaign'
5. 'Is a Nader vote a wasted vote? The Case against Lesser-Evilism'
We need your help, especially to spread the word:
1. Pass the news on to friends, family, co-workers, classmates right now! Post this announcement on other websites!
2. Lead a team of volunteers to go postering or pass out leaflets together. Pick a time and place you want to meet, bring tape and/or staple hammers, and call Ramy at (206) 293-8389 to get volunteers to go postering together.
3. Let the media know Nader is coming to town and urge them to cover Nader's speech and to interview Nader while he is in town. The media can contact Nader's media team through www.VoteNader.org
4. Volunteer to collect signatures to get Nader on the WA State ballot. Contact Mike Gillis at 206-755-4262 or mikedgillis@hotmail.com
5. Help us find a volunteer who could provide American Sign Language interpretation for Nader's speech for at least 1 person who requested this. Email jessiquadown@gmail.com if you find a volunteer.
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