Out with the WASL, in with the new
February 10, 2010
By Laura Geggel
NEW — 1:00 p.m. Feb. 10, 2010
Students who are not fans of standardized testing may be happy to know that such tests in Washington are about to change.
Mount Si High School senior Zac Pearlstein called the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, better known as the WASL, a “distraction.”
“Overall, you’re stuck in a room for four hours, filling in bubbles, and we don’t like that,” Pearlstein said. “I understand that standardized testing is important, but the WASL is a little long.”
While Washington officials cannot do away with standardized testing completely — after all, they still has to comply with federal No Child Left Behind laws requiring state testing — State Superintendent Randy Dorn decided to modify and rename the WASL when he took office last year.
“The thinking was we’re going to do away with the WASL. That’s a misnomer,” Snoqualmie Valley School District Deputy Superintendent Don McConkey said. “We’re not doing away with it. We’ve renamed it.”
The new tests will be shorter and will give students the option of taking them online.
This spring, students in grades three through eight will take the Measure of Student Progress and 10th-graders will take the High School Proficiency Exam.
Students in grades three through five grade taking the MSP will see a substantially shorter test. The reading, math and science sections were each reduced from 140 minutes to 75 minutes. Only the writing section will remain the same length — 120 minutes.
The same goes for students in grades six through eight, whose testing time will drop from 180 minutes to 90 minutes in reading, math and science. Their writing session will also remain the same at 120 minutes.
“The previous WASL took up a lot of instruction time. It really did,” McConkey said. “I think this one narrows it down a little.”
Students will take the MSP later in the year. Instead of testing shortly after spring break in April, students will take the test in May.
Sophomores will take their tests in March and April. Like the MSP, the sophomore HSPE test is shorter. Last year, WASL reading, math and science portions each took two days. This year, those three areas are scheduled for only one day each.
The sophomore writing test remains unchanged at two days.
Both MSP and HSPE test takers will not encounter four-point problems seen on the WASL. Doing away with these questions will save the state money, because they took longer to score.
In another development, students will have the option of taking tests online. This year, all Snoqualmie Valley middle school students will take the reading portion and some will take the math portion of the MSP online. By 2012, all schools will be required to take standardized tests online, with a few exceptions. Special-needs students will have the option of using pencil and paper, McConkey said.
Online testing would use fewer materials and would be more accurate and organized, he said.
Meanwhile, test designers are still formatting the MSP and HSPE.
“We’re learning (about it) on a daily basis,” McConkey said. “It’s a moving target.”
Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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