Kitsap Education

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In anticipation of the annual WASL score release on Friday, I have been thinking about what the WASL means in 2009. I’ve been wondering how much weight WASL carries these days with parents, students, community members?

It’s been awhile since I covered WASL stuff. As some of you may know, I was the Sun’s education reporter from 2001-03. I left just a few short months before the 2003 WASL release. A lot of WASL has happened in those ensuing years, so this week I’ve been refreshing my WASL knowledge and revisiting some history of the test and how it impacts schools.

If we go back in time, the roots of the WASL began in 1993 when state leaders passed an education reform bill that required education standards for each grade. The WASL, or Washington Assessment of Student Learning, became the test to measure whether students knew the standards. WASL testing began in 1997 and grew to include reading and math for grades three through 10, writing for grades four, seven and 10 and science for grades five, eight and ten. It also became a graduation requirement. The most recent results for the WASL 2007-08 show some, but certainly not a majority, of students are meeting state education standards.

If my memory serves correct, not so many years ago the WASL struck fear into the hearts of educators. Low scores meant public shame for many schools. Media, the Sun included, hyped the score-release day as big news. Remember when Moms Against the WASL rallied its troops? And when parents opted their students out of taking the test altogether? WASL became a dirty word in many circles. Maybe that’s why new Superintendent for Public Instruction Randy Dorn recently changed the name?

As the federal education law No Child Left Behind became reality in 2001, each state had to pick a test to meet the law’s requirements. NCLB demanded a test that measured whether students understood their states’ education standards. For better or worse, Washington state picked the WASL.

NCLB targeted 2014 as the year when 100 percent of American students would pass their states’ tests. Schools were supposed to make “adequate yearly progress” on that goal until that time. But, like so many other things in life, for many schools making AYP has been more like taking two steps forward and three steps back. After all, schools are working with kids, not widgets, right?

Under NCLB, schools with low scores year after year would be labeled “failing” and put on “improvement.” Schools could fail to make AYP  if just one portion, or cell, of the student population failed to meet the standards of the state test.

Students are divided by NCLB rules into cells, which are based on many factors such as race, gender, disabilities or economic status. The first year a certain percentage of a cell fails to meet the state standard, the school is simply notified. The second year, if either that same cell or any other fails, then the school is put on step one of “improvement.” Under this step, these schools must offer the chance to transfer to another school to their students. The school must also step up its teacher training. The steps go up to five, which would be the point at which the state is supposed to take over the school, though Washington state does not have mechanism to do this at this time.

 The sticky bit in all this is that different states have different tests. Washington state education standards are high and intricate by any measure and the WASL happens to be pretty demanding. Other states, not so much.

Sound complicated?  Yeah, it is. Has it improved education? It seems as if the WASL and NCLB have poured the pressure on to ensure kids do well on the tests. Whether that’s improving education is a matter of opinion.

I do know from talking with educators that the WASL is not the best diagnostic tool for guiding teaching. End -of-course tests, mid-year and periodic assessments (especially in reading) help teachers understand what their students do and do not know. Then they can adjust their curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of their students. The WASL is given near the end of the school year and the scores aren’t available until now, when everyone has moved on.

Dorn has promised to shorten the test and give it on computers, which will make it easier and cheaper to turn the scores. Shortening the test and the time it takes will give students and teachers more class time in the spring. The WASL can eat up as much as three weeks in March/April in some schools. Also, Dorn has labeled the new WASL as the HSPE (for high school proficiency exam) and the MSP (for measure of student progress) for the younger students. Maybe making the acronyms unpronounceable will help ensure they don’t become dirty words?

Anyway, I can’t wait for Friday, can you?

Tags: WASL

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 9:14 pm by marietta nelson and is filed under WASL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.