The following editorial appeared last Wednesday in the Everett Herald.

Predictably, the proposal to delay requiring high school students to pass a math test in order to graduate has encouraged calls for doing the same in reading and writing, even though student progress there has been remarkable.

Such calls are dangerously misguided.

Delaying the graduation requirement in math by three years makes sense. Only 58 percent of the state’s juniors – the first class to face the requirement – have passed the math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. That’s a clear sign that math instruction needs to improve. The delay, as proposed, wouldn’t let students or the education system off the hook; it would require students to continue progressing in math until they pass the WASL and move toward a consistent method of teaching math statewide.

Reading and writing, the other two WASL sections required for graduation, are a different story. Statewide, 87 percent of juniors have passed the reading test, 86 percent the writing exam. Nothing is broken. For those who have yet to pass one or both, targeted support is available, as are more retakes and, if needed, alternate assessments.

Jumping ship on reading and writing now would send precisely the wrong message to students and educators. Besides throwing cold water on the tremendous success already achieved, it would do an even greater disservice to those currently on their way to passing, teaching them that high standards aren’t important, that mediocrity is good enough to succeed in life.

To date, tens of millions of state dollars have been appropriated for targeted help to get students over the WASL bar, and the governor has proposed more. Alternate assessments for students who simply don’t perform well on tests are just kicking in. Two more rounds of WASL testing are scheduled for this year, and every student who hasn’t yet passed is eligible for retakes.

Even if a sound case could be made for delaying the reading and writing requirements, why do it now, when there will still be time to do so next year? The support programs and alternatives should have a chance to succeed first, or the money and effort already expended on them will have been wasted. Let’s at least see where we are at this time next year.

The world has changed since today’s adults were in school. Technology and globalization will require fundamentally higher skills of tomorrow’s workforce. Holding our children to sufficient standards offers them a chance for success. Easing up, when so many are meeting those standards, doesn’t do any of our children a favor.