By Eric Stevick
Herald Writer
The state will spend up to $100,000 for clues on why seventh- and 10th-graders score so poorly on the math portion of the state exam known as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
An independent research organization will be hired to study the tests and an array of other factors, including where the bar has been set to meet the state’s math standards.
It is important to iron out potential problems with the exams now rather than a few years from now when high school students must pass them to earn a certificate of mastery to graduate, state officials said.
"These are new tests, and we have to work the bugs out of them before they really count at grade 10 when certificate of mastery is in place," said Pete Bylsma, director of research and evaluation for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. "We hope to do that now and avoid a crisis later."
The state wants the findings by mid-summer, Bylsma said.
While the percentage of the state’s fourth-graders passing the state math assessment has doubled to 43 percent, just 27 percent of seventh-graders made the grade last year, a slight drop from the previous year. Nearly 40 percent of 10th-graders passed.
The WASL also includes exams in reading, writing and listening.
Among other things, the state will look at the process originally used to determine what is considered proficient on the math exam, Bylsma said.
The study will examine the overall difficulty of the test, how the test and state standards compare with other parts of the country and how the test is given at different schools. Researchers are likely to study schools that fared well and those that scored poorly.
A comparison will be made about how students did when they were seventh-graders compared with their performance in the fourth grade.
"There is something happening at the middle school level we have to figure out, and I don’t know what it is," said Terry Bergeson, the state superintendent of public instruction. "There really isn’t good data about middle school kids. That’s the black hole."
The studies could be similar to research conducted in the year 2000 on the fourth-grade math exam after complaints from some parents and educators that it was too difficult.
That research concluded that the math portion of the fourth-grade WASL needed tweaking but not a major overhaul.
"Various analyses concluded that the level needed to meet the standard was within the developmental capability of well-taught, hard-working fourth-grade students," the report concludes.
Some changes resulted. The study found that 10 of the 120 math questions given on the WASL exams were either too difficult or beyond what is expected of fourth-graders by state learning standards.
You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at 425-339-3446 or send e-mail to
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