Washington state schools superintendent: WASL is out

By MICHAEL DASHIELL
Sequim Gazette
 
Posted Jan. 22, 2009

Let’s use a shorter, cheaper test with more information coming back to teachers.
 
That’s the message from new state schools superintendent Randy Dorn, who wants Washington students and teachers using a two-part testing system statewide by 2012.
 
The system, called the Washington Comprehensive Assessment Program, is divided into tests for students in grades three-eight and tests for high school students.
 
The system would replace the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, a controversial system that Dorn opposed in his election bid against incumbent Terry Bergeson.
 
Dorn proposes the tests be an option in 2010 and required by 2012. The new system would need approval from state legislators to be put in place.
 
Bill Bentley, Sequim schools superintendent, said the new grades three-eight test system looks like one Sequim teachers already use: the Measures of Academic Progress.
 
Taken twice annually — once at the beginning and at the end of each academic year — MAP tests show how students are progressing or regressing, Bentley said.

“(Dorn’s proposal) all sounds like MAP to me,” Bentley said. “If that is the case, then we would be very supportive of that. We strongly believe the system we have in the district does all of those things. It provides teachers ... a much better way than the current assessment system. A growth model is a key to having a reliable (testing) system. That looks really positive.”
 
Dorn’s test would use a computerized testing system that, he said, will result in faster test results and lower costs. The system also will cut back on the time students spend out of classroom.

Bentley said he supports the fact that students won’t be out as long as the two weeks that it takes to complete a WASL testing cycle.

“I think the notion of a test that’s shorter is beneficial because we are losing a significant amount of time to this current testing system,” Bentley said.
 
Washington students are slated to continue to take WASL tests through the end of the 2008-2009 school year.

If Dorn’s proposal gains approval, school districts could implement the Washington Comprehensive Assessment Program as early as next school year.

Students who pass the WASL test in 2009 will not be required to take the new high school exam, Dorn said.

But his new high school system still requires a passing grade for a diploma.

“I strongly believe in high standards and in using the reading and writing tests as part of our graduation requirements,” Dorn said in a prepared statement Wednesday.

Under Washington law, the state schools superintendent has the ability to modify the state assessment system, although legislators can request input in the changes.
 
Dorn also announced that he plans ask the state Legislature to delay the date (2013) when high-school students must pass a state test in math and science to earn their diplomas.
 
State tests are used by the federal government to judge whether schools are making adequate progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
 
For more details about the new testing system, see: www.k12.wa.us/WCAP/default.aspx.