Teacher gives bad lesson with WASL stand

Nothing is more inspiring than a teacher with passion and principles.

Nothing is more disappointing than when passion causes a principle to go off track.

Which brings us to Carl Chew, the avuncular sixth-grade Seattle Public Schools teacher who was just told to take a time out and sit in the corner.

The district gave Chew a nine-day suspension for refusing this month to give the WASL to his students at Eckstein Middle School. The test measures whether students are meeting goals in reading, math, writing and science as set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Chew, 60, says he has heartfelt reasons for not wanting to give the test.

Surprisingly, being arrogant and self-indulgent didn't make his list.

And now, it's his students who've gotten left behind -- with a substitute teacher while Chew, on unpaid leave, chills.

		Scott Eklund / P-I
	Eckstein Middle School teacher Carl Chew has been suspended for refusing to give his class the WASL.

When a teacher signs up for a public school gig in this state, the WASL -- short for the Washington Assessment of Student Learning -- is part of the deal.

Chew has just pulled "a Watada" -- a reference to Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer in the U.S. armed forces to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq because the war, in his opinion, is wrong.

In the teaching trenches, the WASL has its supporters, and it has its critics. The latter say the test is too narrow a look at what makes a well-rounded student. They say the test is culturally biased, favoring kids of privilege.

The critics have made their voices heard in the Legislature and local school board meetings -- appropriate forums for debate.

But the classroom just isn't the place.

Sure, Chew's grandstanding at Eckstein got media attention. The upshot, though, is more flash-pan heat than reformative light. I feel for Chew's students, who still have to take the test regardless of his kerfuffle. He left them in a lurch, placing personal thoughts and pontification ahead of what the district pays him to do -- educate.

Chew calls his deed an act "of civil disobedience" which cheapens the legacy of those who took truly courageous stands, facing prison or death, to address moral injustice and evil laws. His gripes with the WASL -- that it disrupts learning, that it doesn't help schools do a better job, that it lassos performance to testing -- are reasonable. But they are hardly reasons to raise a fist and curse the gods.

Standardized tests everywhere come under fire by someone.

But these tests are also helpful, necessary gauges to measure if kids are leaving school with more between their ears than when they arrived.

Chew seems earnest and committed to public education. He says he's taking a stand for kids' sakes.

He'd do better staking out Olympia, persuading lawmakers to rethink the WASL. Or he could do what teachers who think responsibly outside-the-box do -- take controversy and empower kids to think critically about it.

Three years ago, students and staff at Rainier Beach High did that very thing. The young test takers crafted public service videos critiquing the exam.

The videos put way too much blame on the wrong factors for why the WASL is a big, bad test. The kids blamed teachers. They blamed administrators. They blamed the test. The students forgot one thing -- they are accountable, too.

But in light of Chew's huff, I have to give Rainier Beach credit for at least giving the students a voice.

When Chew threw up his hands, he not only showed conduct unbecoming a teacher, but he also acted smugly on behalf of students and parents who actually might -- surprise! -- like the test.

His gesture was off base -- and set a bad precedent.

The last thing public schools need is teachers making or breaking the rules as they go.