This week marks the beginning of the end for the high school WASL, a statewide exam that has changed education in the state over the past decade.
Thousands of students across Washington will take their 10th-grade reading and writing exams this week and math and science tests in April. Most will be sophomores, but many will be juniors and seniors who, in order to graduate, must pass the reading and writing Washington Assessment of Student Learning or an alternative to the test.
Next spring, state education leaders plan to roll out new exams as the state moves toward online tests that are supposed to be quicker to take and ask fewer long-answer questions. As has been the case with the WASL, high school students will have to pass the new reading and writing exams to graduate.
High school principals and counselors hope that students give their best effort on the WASL this year, despite the overhaul ahead.
At Stanwood High School, most sophomores passed their reading and writing WASLs during their freshmen year, when the state allowed ninth-graders to take the exam a year early. That option was dropped for this year’s freshmen because there wasn’t enough money.
Stanwood Principal Christine Gruver has been told by members of her staff that some students are considering skipping the WASL.
“What we are hearing from some of our students is they are waiting for what the state is going to do and to see what it will be like for next year,” she said. “We have some students waiting to decide whether they will do the test or not.”
Gruver’s advice: Take it now.
WASL scores have improved during the decade the tests have been given to 10th-graders. Passing rates in reading rose from 41 percent in 1999 to nearly 83 percent in 2008. Passing rates in writing more than doubled to nearly 87 percent during the same period.
Math was an entirely different story. The pass rate rose from 33 percent to just under 50 percent during that time, forcing state lawmakers to delay using the math assessment as a graduation requirement.
The WASL has become increasingly contentious.
It evolved from a systems check on schools to a high-stakes exam and graduation requirement, said Justin Fox-Bailey, president of the Snohomish Education Association.
Many critics considered November’s general election for state schools superintendent to be a referendum on the WASL. Pledging to overhaul the WASL, challenger Randy Dorn defeated three-term incumbent Terry Bergeson.
Just days after taking office, Dorn announced he would replace the high school WASL with a new assessment called the High School Proficiency Exams. State WASL exams for younger grades also will be changed to tests called Measurements of Student Progress.
The online testing will be voluntarily in 2010 and 2011, with the goal of statewide online testing in 2012.
“We will do everything we can to meet that goal, but are mindful that financial and technological issues could arise,” Dorn wrote to school leaders across the state last week.
Eric Stevick writes for The Herald of Everett.
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