Congratulations to the Oak Harbor High School class of 2015.

Unfortunately, of the 40 percent of you continuing on to either a community or technical college in Washington state, three out of five will end up taking pre-college/remedial classes in reading, writing and/or math below the 100 college level.

That’s because, as you step foot into one of these open-enrollment schools, you will be tested via a standardized achievement test, such as the COMPASS test used by Skagit Valley College.

Unsurprisingly, one of the Oak Harbor Education Association’s self-righteous reasons for their illegal strike/walkout last month was their Whidbey News-Times-reported allegation that it’s “a bad idea to make standardized test results part of graduation requirements.”

However, the 1983 “A Nation at Risk” report recommended for K-12 that “standardized tests of achievement … should be administered at major transition points from one level of schooling to another and particularly from high school to college or work.

The purposes of these tests would be to: certify the student’s credentials; identify the need for remedial intervention; and identify the opportunity for advanced or accelerated work …”

No wonder K-12 teachers and their unions oppose standardized testing within K-12. They’d like to keep it secret that, 32 years after “A Nation at Risk,” way too many academically meaningless high school diplomas are still plentiful.

As a result of 32 years of failed education reform, K-12 teachers are still held completely unaccountable and only students and their parents are left “holding the bag.”

William Burnett

Oak Harbor