Most students agree that the WASL is a bore. Many teachers, too, dislike the waste of class time. But it’s a statewide requirement for graduation and funding, and despite all complaints, it’s not likely to go away anytime soon.

Still, a number of parents are voicing concerns about the WASL and its perceived faults. Allegations of unfairness and futility in the WASL have prompted many to speak out. A group of mothers from throughout the state even formed a political anti-WASL organization, Mothers Against WASL.

Deborah Bowler, the administrative director of the Children’s Alliance, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that works on youth and family issues, decided that she didn’t want her daughter, a Seattle tenth-grader, to take the WASL.

“The WASL represents everything that worries me about the demise of the public school system and the implications for democracy in the U.S.,” says Bowler. “A class system is asserting itself; the rich are getting richer and more people are getting poor.”

Bowler believes that creating one standard for all students is inherently unfair, because of the established socioeconomic inequities that determine academic achievement, and because public school funding directly reflects those inequities.

“You might think it’s extreme and nutty to relate the WASL to all that, but I do,” says Bowler.

Unfortunately for parents like Bowler, the WASL is a requirement for graduation, and a student cannot opt out of the test, even if he or she qualifies for the graduation alternatives such as grade comparison and SAT scores.

“The only way a high school student can access one of the graduation alternatives is to take the WASL at least once,” says Chris Barron, Assessment Communications Manager for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. “If a student opts out and/or does not take the WASL at least once, they will not receive a high school diploma.”

According to the Washington State Report Card, only 80.9 percent of students statewide passed the required reading section of the test last year. The numbers may seem bleak, but Gretchen Wilkinson, director of the WASL support programs at Garfield, says the data need to be taken into perspective.

“That’s actually a pretty good number,” says Wilkinson. “And for those other kids, there are alternatives available.”

Wilkinson acknowledges the inequities in the education system.

“Some kids start preschool at four or five,” says Wilkinson. “Other kids start way later. They don’t go to preschool. So by the time they’re older, they’re already two or three years behind.”

She is quick to maintain, however, that the WASL is a reflection, not a cause, of academic achievement gaps.

“It has forced all the schools to question, ‘Why does every child not learn and what can we do about it?’” she says.

Parents like Bowler continue to wait and hope that the rules will loosen or the WASL will be discredited altogether, but even if they do, it won’t be in time for Bowler’s daughter, as the WASL isn’t up for review by the State Board of Education until 2012.

For those who are awaiting a policy change, Wilkinson has some words of advice:

“Don’t hold your breath,” she says. “There’s too much at stake.”