Changes in store for WASL next year

By Venice Buhain | The Olympian • Published August 22, 2008

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OLYMPIA – Third- through eighth-graders will spend significantly less time next year taking the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, representatives of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction said Thursday.

What's next

•Tuesday: Spring 2008 Washington Assessment of Student Learning data is set to be released at 10 a.m. That release will contain the scores for schools and districts from third through eighth grades, as well as 10th grade.

•Thursday: The state will release the district preliminary adequate yearly progress reports. Adequate yearly progress is a factor in determining whether a school has met federal No Child Left Behind requirements. Schools and districts that do not make adequate yearly progress face being labeled as "needing improvement" under No Child Left Behind guidelines. Schools and districts that do not make adequate yearly progress in the same category more than two years in a row face corrective measures, including having federal money withheld.

More schools also will be at risk of not meeting adequate yearly progress, as defined by federal guidelines, because the minimum number of students who need to pass reading and writing assessments will rise by more than 10 percentage points across the board, OSPI officials said.

Students also will notice some changes to the WASL as early as next year, the OSPI said Thursday.

The tests for third- through eighth-graders will get between 19 percent and 40 percent shorter, said Robin Munson, OSPI director of student information and assessment operations.

She said that removing hardest and easiest questions did not affect the tests' ability to measure whether students met state standards. There also will be more multiple-choice questions and fewer extended response items, Munson said.

Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.