Thursday, January 18, 2007

Oops!


From the Tri-City Herald:

Tia Pingel thinks she did well on a high-stakes state math test last summer, but because of a shipping mistake she may have to take it again.

The 17-year-old junior at Kiona-Benton City High School retook part of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning in August. So did 19 of her classmates and some teens from another district.

But Ki-Be's exams never made it to the Iowa company hired by the state to score them because they were lost in the mail. Despite pleas from Principal Rick Linehan, the state may require the juniors to retake the retake in order to graduate on time.

"It bothers me that I took the time to do this. We took the time and they lose our scores and we have to retake it," Pingel said. "It was all that for nothing."

The class of 2008 is the first required to pass the WASL in reading, writing and math to earn a diploma. Nearly 11,700 juniors statewide sat for the August testing, which was for students who missed or failed to pass sections the spring before.

Most of the 20 Benton City students prepared with five weeks of summer classes through Educational Service District 123 in Pasco. The WASL exams were administered there, then shipped per state instructions, said Mark Muxen, executive director of instructional support at the Pasco agency.

Ki-Be's exams are the only ones statewide to have been lost in shipping, said Molly O'Connor, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which is in charge of the WASL.

The word on the street is that this may have been the first action by a militant fringe of Mothers Against WASL to take their fight to a grander scale. I believe it's going to be the central premise of Season 7 of 24.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

My name is Jessica Anderson and I am a student from Kiona-Benton High School. My test was in the "lost box" with 22 other tests. Us students drove all the way across the Tri-Cities to take this test. Most students were retaking the test, due to failure to pass the previous test. I, however, was absent from the testing day when it was originally offered. I feel it is not my fault that the state's mail provider, Fed Ex, lost the test. My fellow students and I did what was asked and did it with no complaint. Our principle, Rick Linehan, is doing all he can to fight for the state to automatically pass, not waive, our test. I feel the state should take responsibility in their poor tracking systems and grant us our certificates of academic achievement.
~Jessica~

5:38 PM  

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