Meadowdale students join in protest against standardized test

EDMONDS — Twenty Meadowdale High School juniors showed up early at school Thursday to protest having to take yet another standardized test.

This time it was the Smarter Balanced Assessment, which is mandatory but not required for graduation.

High school students already have to take four tests that are required for graduation, as well as myriad others, including college-entry exams and Advanced Placement tests, said Cindy Nguyen, the Meadowdale junior who organized the demonstration.

The Smarter Balanced Assessment simply “creates unnecessary anxiety” and takes away classroom time from more meaningful instruction, she said.

Only 18 percent of juniors at Meadowdale High School took the test on Thursday. Across the Edmonds School District, which includes Meadowdale, 1,231 juniors — or 81 percent of the class — did not take the test this year.

Thousands of high school juniors across Snohomish County have refused to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment test, but the proportions doing so vary by school district. In the Northshore School District, which includes areas of Snohomish and King counties, 641 juniors, or 41 percent of that class, refused to take the test. Parents must sign off if a student refuses to take the test.

“Many of those students had already completed the required state assessments and didn’t want to take another test,” said Leanne Albrecht, the Northshore district’s communications director.

In the Snohomish School District, 63 percent of juniors didn’t take the test, while only 6.5 percent in Marysville refused.

Other districts in metro Puget Sound have seen refusals, too. Students in several Seattle high schools organized boycotts against the test. Across the country, tens of thousands of students have reportedly opted out of required assessments.

Nguyen said she organized Thursday’s demonstration to protest the proliferation of standardized testing in public education. While the Smarter Balanced Assessment for juniors is not required for graduation now, it will replace currently required reading and writing tests starting with the class of 2017.

For now, the new test is used primarily to measure a school’s performance, Nguyen said. “My learning is a second priority to that.”

She said some of her teachers have taken time to address the format of the Smarter Balanced Assessment. “There is always that air: ‘You need to understand how to answer this question or that question.’”

She and fellow students have had to take time away from classroom instruction to go to Meadowdale’s computer lab to learn how to take the new test, part of which is administered on computers, she said.

The Everett School District spent $1.7 million to ensure it had enough laptops to accommodate the new test.

The test’s creator, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, on its website says it is “valid, reliable and fair.” However, legislators in Maine are considering a bill to do away with the test.

While Nguyen is concerned about how the test affects her education, school administrators are worried about how refusing to take it affects a district’s compliance with No Child Left Behind requirements. The 2002 federal law requires U.S. public schools to administer standardized tests.

A student refusing to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment counts as a zero in the scoring used to determine compliance, Marysville Superintendent Becky Berg said.

Not having perfect scores this year led to most schools in the state being labeled “schools of improvement” under the federal law. They are more commonly referred to as “failing schools.”

Washington applied to the federal Department of Education for a waiver from No Child Left Behind requirements, but a waiver was denied.

The state’s top educator, Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn, defended the Smarter Balanced Assessment in a public statement last month. If more than 5 percent of students don’t take federally required tests, the U.S. Department of Education could withhold money from public schools.

“The decision to refuse testing doesn’t just affect the individual student,” he said in the statement. “It affects students across the state. If you don’t like the federal law, don’t refuse to have your child take the tests; call your U.S. representative and senators and tell them to change the law.”

Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.

Juniors refusing to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment

School districtRefusals (% of junior class)

Arlington:65 (15.7)

Edmonds:1,281 (81.0)

Everett:572 (43.4)

Lake Stevens:124 (21.4)

Marysville:65 (6.5)

Monroe:N/A

Snohomish:510 (63.5)

Stanwood-Camano:241 (81.0)

Sources: School districts

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.