Remove graduation requirements from Washington State testing!

We, the People of Washington State, call on the legislature to change current testing policy to:

Remove the graduation requirement from high school standardized tests.

Clarify that standardized test scores are not to be used to retain or promote students in elementary or middle schools, leaving those decisions up to school staff and parents.

Standardized testing can be a good way to see if students at every school in the state know what they should know, and can do what they should be able to do at appropriate grade levels.

But there are many reasons why a student may not do well on a standardized test. These one-size-fits-all assessments of learning should not keep a student who has successfully earned the appropriate credits by passing high school coursework from receiving a high school diploma.

The legislature should remove the graduation requirements of state testing and use the money saved to help adequately fund schools, as required by the state Supreme Court’s McCleary ruling.