WASL to be replaced this coming school year

KIRA MILLAGE - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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The Washington Assessment of Student Learning is no more.

Starting this coming school year, the 12-year-old WASL is being replaced by two new tests: Measurements of Student Progress for grades 3-8 and the High School Proficiency Exam.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn fulfilled his campaign promise by replacing the unpopular WASL, which he thought was too complex and didn't provide enough information to schools to help struggling students.

Measurements of Student Progress will be a shorter annual test, with more multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank answers while eliminating the long-answer essay questions. The test still will be given in reading, math, writing and science.

The High School Proficiency Exam also will be shorter than the WASL, with reading, math and science tests each being done in one day instead of two. The writing test will still require two days of testing. Starting in the 2011-12 school year, high school students will be tested in math through assessments at the end of each math level, rather than on a comprehensive test.

During the next couple of years, but not this spring, the tests also will be offered online. The new tests should save school districts some money in staffing since testing won't take as long, according to state education officials.

By changing the test format and length, results should be able to reach school districts, students and teachers much faster. But the results still won't be useful in monitoring individual student performance, according to Brian Rick, the assessment and evaluation specialist for the district.

"How it's built, we're not learning more about the student," Rick said. "There are the same limitations with the new tests."

While school and district officials are pleased the new tests will be shorter and not require almost a month of testing, they are concerned about how results will compare to WASL results.

The new tests still will be the main factor in determining whether schools are making "adequate yearly progress" in having all students at grade level by 2014, as required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Normally test scores are compared to the scores from the previous year to determine if progress has been made, but education officials aren't sure how the comparisons will work now.

"This test has been with us so long, and we've made a lot of progress along the way," Lynden Superintendent Rick Thompson said of the WASL, "so the question we're asking now is, 'How is (progress) going to change in the next year?'"