When high school students open their test booklets Tuesday, they’ll turn the page on an important chapter in the history of standardized testing in Washington state.
Gone is the WASL – the Washington Assessment of Student Learning – that has served for more than a decade as the measure of how well Evergreen State kids were learning. Fourth-graders took the first WASL in 1997.
Replacing it are the High School Proficiency Exam, or HSPE, which older students begin taking this week, and the Measurements of Student Progress, or MSP, which students in grades three through eight will take beginning in May.
The WASL had drawn criticism from both parents and educators over the years, and ditching it was a campaign pledge of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn, who was elected in 2008.
“People said we were testing way too much,” Dorn said in an interview last week.
High schools typically spent six days administering the reading, math and science WASL – two test days in each subject.
The new tests are shorter and will steal less time from teaching. The HSPE slims down to one test day each for reading, math and science. It does retain a two-day test for writing.
This week, high school students will take a one-day reading test and the two-day writing test. In April, they’ll be tested in math and science – one testing day each.
The HSPE will primarily be taken this week by 10th-graders, but also by students in grades 11 and 12 who previously failed the WASL. Dorn stopped offering the test for ninth-graders to save money.
To graduate, high school students must either pass the HSPE or already have passed the WASL. Some special education students are permitted to take an alternate exam.
In addition to saving time, the new tests eliminate what were known as extended-response questions. Worth four points on the old WASL, those questions on the reading, math and science tests required students to write lengthier answers.
The new tests are restricted to either multiple choice or short-answer questions. The writing test, however, will still require students to respond to essay questions.
The net gain in classroom instructional time makes teachers happy.
Sandra Coyer, who teaches English and journalism at Puyallup High School, said less time devoted to state tests will help her keep students on track and maintain continuity in what she’s teaching.
But she has mixed feelings about the loss of the extended-response questions.
“I kind of liked when a student was able to provide more information about why (he or she) was answering a certain way,” said Coyer, who has helped score WASL tests. “It gives you more insight into the direction the student is headed and offers the student the opportunity to give more information that would possibly hit the target.”
Critics had charged that scoring these questions was an exercise in subjectivity. Grading them took more time and, therefore, cost more.
Dorn insists the new, shorter tests are just as rigorous as the WASL.
Nancy Arnold, in charge of testing for the Puyallup School District, said they are still tests of basic skills. The goal is to ensure that students meet standards in subject areas.
“We still have an independent state assessment driven by our state standards and grade level expectations,” Arnold said.
She said the new tests haven’t prompted big changes in teaching: “Teachers are teaching to the standards.”
Christine Brandt, assistant principal at Wilson High School in Tacoma, agrees. For example, students will still be given a prompt on the writing test.
If teachers are getting students up to speed on standards and concepts, she said, “our kids will be successful no matter which test is given.”
One big change in state testing will come later in the school year. In May, an estimated 25 percent of students in grades six through eight will take the reading and math portions of the MSP online.
In Tacoma, all middle schoolers will test online in those subjects.
“It’s pretty simple,” said Pat Cummings, director of research and evaluation for Tacoma Public Schools. “We have mobile laptops (on carts) in all our middle schools.”
But because the computer testing is new, schools have had students take practice exams.
The online test will be administered on a secure Web site. Students will be given a password and an identification name to log in.
“In the short run, it will be complicated to get everybody familiar with the new technology,” Cummings said. “But it will be easier in the long run.”
The state has plans to eventually have all students take the tests with computers. High school students and fifth-graders are scheduled to test online next year. Dorn said he’s confident online testing will save money “down the road.”
One other change will affect high school test-takers, but not until next year. For the first time, students will take end-of-course exams in individual math subjects instead of the more comprehensive HSPE math test.
Students who take first-year algebra (or its alternative, called integrated math 1) will be tested on that subject. Students in geometry (or integrated math 2) classes will be tested only on that subject.
The exams will be given during a three-week testing window at the end of the 2010-11 school year.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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