teacher, may I be excused from the WASL?

I have to barf.

Some errors apparently were accidental, such as useful posters hanging in classrooms, providing the wrong kind of pencils and teachers who misread test directions or had students start the wrong sections at the wrong time.

Irregularities also included fire alarms, nosebleeds and other illnesses. A booklet from Eatonville was returned to the testing company in a plastic bag because a student had vomited on it.

I've always thought proctoring the WASL is as dull as watching public television. Maybe not.

Some tests were invalidated due to teacher idiocy and student mischief:

An Everett teacher gave students definitions of acute and obtuse angles and how many meters are in a kilometer.

"This departure from test protocol destroys the validity of these four test items and significantly impacts the credibility of the score results for these students," Paul Dugger, the state assessment coordinator, wrote in a report. OSPI invalidated the tests. A complaint against the teacher is still being investigated....

A Lakewood High School 10th grader got in trouble for using his cell phone during the test to send a text message after finishing his exam and turning it in. Another student had his test recommended for invalidation because he received a text message.

800 pages of issues, in sum. Makes you wonder how many anomalies go unreported when the pressure's on.