Washington State Legislators are now aware of the gross inequity that left many minority students without equal opportunity.

This letter is from a community leader urging support for Representative Maureen Walsh of the  Washington State Legislature as she is working on an amendment to level the playing field before allowing a student to be denied their HS Diploma. Too many students were denied all the options possible for passing the state math standard to graduate.

I want to express my concern about the current standards in place concerning high school graduation. While I firmly believe in fair and reasonable standards, the current math requirements in place now, and those that will become even more difficult in 2014, are ill-considered. I encourage your support of Maureen Walsh's efforts to suspend the math requirements currently in place in the 2013 high school graduation requirements and to revert to the standards of 2012.

As you likely know, this has been a matter of great concern to Jim Sporleder, principal of Lincoln High School. Jim and I serve together on the Community Council's gang prevention implementation task force and we've had many discussions about this subject.

One of the arguments made for keeping the math requirements in place in 2013 and making them even more rigorous in 2014 is that they can be met by the passage of tests or by the completion of a Collection of Evidence project. My understanding is that all Lincoln High students who had not passed the Algebra 1 test by September, 2012 took and successfully completed COE projects. I also understand that almost all math-deficient students at Wa-Hi also passed the COE.

While the Walla Walla High Schools did a great job in providing the COE classes to their students, this was not universally true throughout the state. A close friend of mine is the president of a school board in a small Central Washington town. She is a very engaged and conscientious board member. She told me that her school district began organizing a COE class late in the Fall of 2012, offered it only as an after-school program and did not make it mandatory for math-deficient students. Her district had 40 math-deficient students as of September, 2012. When the COE class was belatedly organized, 20 students took the class. The other 20 students opted-out primarily because of after-school job commitments. 100% of the students who took the COE class passed it. Unfortunately, most of the remaining 20 never had a realistic chance to take it. Unless the current graduation standards are modified, they will not graduate even though they've met all other requirements.

One part of this story needs to be underscored: many of the students who opted-out because of their after-school jobs provide substantial economic help to their families. Most are Latino, poor and hard-working. Quitting a job to take the COE class was a choice many felt they couldn't afford to make out of concern for their families. They should have never been put in that position.

To see that all of its students had the COE opportunity, all school districts in Washington State should have:
1. Advised all math-deficient students and their parents in August that they would not graduate without successfully completing the Collection of Evidence class.
2. Required all of these students to take the COE.
3. Provided the class during regular school hours.

Until all high schools in this state adopt these minimal COE procedures, the math requirements in the high school graduation standards should be suspended. When the OSPI has issued requirements like those listed above to provide the COE curriculums in all schools and they have been universally implemented, then a reinstatement of the current math standards may be reasonable. But, until all high schools are properly providing the COE opportunities, the graduation requirements should revert to the 2012 standards.

I urge your help in correcting this legislative and institutional mistake. Tougher standards like these math requirements, while well-intentioned, will have bad, unplanned consequences if not well-implemented. At this point, the Collection of Evidence option has not been properly provided in many school districts.

Best,

Jim Smith. (Changed name, his daughter is referenced in letter.)/em>