Associated Press

It’s WASL time for thousands of Washington state students.

Fourth, seventh and 10th graders are taking the controversial Washington State Assessment of Student Learning, in what’s become viewed as two of the most important weeks in the school year.

Unless state policy is changed, students in the class of 2008 will have to pass the 10th-grade WASL before they can get their diplomas. A state Board of Education committee is now studying whether that requirement should stand.

Parents and teachers statewide have criticized the test, which they say puts too much pressure on students and educators.

"So if you beat and whip and fire teachers, somehow kids will get smarter?" Patty Grenquist, a fifth-grade teacher in Poulsbo, asked at a seminar on the WASL held earlier this month.

Testing was beginning today.

The WASL is the centerpiece of an education reform law adopted in 1993. It’s aim: to raise expectations for schools and students.

The test is designed to measure critical-thinking skills and how well students can apply what they have learned. It measures students’ aptitude in reading, math, writing and listening.

"It’s a big deal," said Poulsbo’s North Kitsap School District Superintendent Gene Medina. "But I think it’s one piece to measure what kids are learning … and I think we’ve made it into a big thing, and that’s one of the problems."

Some critics of the WASL are backing an initiative that would require candidates for state and local office to take the 10th-grade WASL and make the test scores public. Backers of Initiative 780 have until July 5 to collect nearly 200,000 signatures needed to qualify the measure for the ballot.

Meanwhile, six years after the WASL’s inception, a majority of students still are not passing all four WASL sections.

In the latest round, only 26.7 percent of all fourth-graders got passing grades in all four areas. For seventh-graders, the number was 19.5 percent and for 10th graders, 29.5 percent. Each grade level did better than in 2000, with 10th-graders up significantly over last year’s 20.8 percent.

Math remains a stumbling block for many students. Scores released last fall showed that less than half the students, and only 27 percent of the seventh graders, met basic standards.

Fourth-grade reading scores improved slightly — about two-thirds met the standard — and more than 62 percent of the sophomores passed. Seventh graders? Less than 40 percent.

Educators say they’re not sure the number of students passing all four parts of the test will see a sufficient increase by 2006, when sophomores in the class of 2008 take the WASL.

"The educational process is a human endeavor," said Dan Whitford, South Kitsap School District’s director of secondary education. "The concern I have with this accounting process is that they try to compare it to business, but the product in business is a thing, not a human. There’s a lot more going on in the classroom than the WASL. To put that much emphasis on it concerns a lot of people."

Unlike old standardized tests, the WASL requires students to write essays and describe math solutions with written words.

Some teachers and students say the WASL doesn’t worry them, but others say the test is nerve-racking.

"I want to get a good job. I want to have a life," said Isaac Davis, a seventh-grader at Poulsbo Junior High School. "I think if I don’t try hard on the WASL and I don’t do well, there’s a likely chance I won’t go on to college or get a job."

Teachers and school administrators in some districts have developed campaigns to raise scores. Critics call it "teaching to the test," but educators defend the technique, saying the WASL tests skills and knowledge students need to be productive adults.

"We’re teaching kids to be lifelong learners, critical thinkers, problem solvers and to analyze what they are doing," said Mike Sellers, assistant principal at Bremerton School District’s Mountain View Middle School.

So far, the WASL doesn’t test subjects such as science, social studies, health, fitness or art. Separate tests covering those subjects are scheduled to be added in the coming years.

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