Thousands of high school students across Snohomish County on Tuesday will get their first crack at new and shorter state exams that replace the controversial WASL.
The 10th-grade High School Proficiency Exam makes its debut at a high school near you.
Students must still pass the reading and writing portions of this new test to graduate, but the reading, math and science tests won’t have questions requiring extended written explanations as the WASL did. That means that each of those exams can be taken in one day instead of over two days.
“We call it WASL-lite,” said Jim Dean, principal at Glacier Peak High School.
Only the state writing exam, which includes two essays, will be taken over two days.
Rita-Mae Hatch, a sophomore at Granite Falls High School, said the name and different format of the state exam doesn’t really matter much to her. It’s still high stakes.
If students don’t pass the reading and writing, they can’t get a diploma. They also must either pass the math test or continue taking and passing math classes to earn a diploma.
“The nervousness will still be there wondering if you passed it or not,” she said.
When Randy Dorn ran for state superintendent of public instruction in 2008, he made frustration with the WASL a big part of his campaign. He defeated incumbent Terry Bergeson.
High school reading and writing exams will be taken this week. Math exams will happen on April 13 and science on April 15.
Students in elementary and middle schools this spring also will take new exams known as Measurements of Student Progress.
In May, a little more than a quarter of Washington’s students in grades six through eight will take the reading and math exams online. The online rollout plan calls for high school and fifth grade to be added next school year.
Eight school districts in Snohomish County volunteered for computer testing, but only the Stanwood School District will have all three grades take the reading and math exams online in each of its middle school programs.
Most schools are sticking with the pencil and paper tests this year. The testing window for the traditional exams is May 12 to 28. The testing window for the online version is from May 3 to June 4.
High school students will begin to see more changes to the exams in the coming years with the debut of end-of-course exams in math in 2011 and in science in 2012.
Dean said he wishes the state would allow freshmen to take the 10th-grade WASL a year early. The Legislature stopped the early bird testing last year in a cost-cutting move.
It leaves high schools scrambling to find ways to keep freshmen busy while sophomores take the exams along with upperclassmen who failed earlier attempts.
Glacier Peak will host a production of “Romeo and Juliet” one day, have ninth-graders take a writing assessment the second day and have a motivational speaker and discussion about drug and alcohol issues on a third day.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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