The Olympian Logo

Last WASL test results due Friday | The Olympian

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • About Us
    • Buy Photos and Pages
    • Contact Us
    • Plus
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters
    • Newspaper in Education
    • Subscribe
    • Subscriber Services
    • Archives

    • News
    • Business
    • Crime
    • Databases
    • Death Notices
    • Education
    • Local News
    • Military News
    • Obituaries
    • Politics & Government
    • State
    • Traffic
    • Watchdog
    • Weather
    • Opinion
    • Cartoons
    • Editorials
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Opinion Columns
    • Submit a Letter
    • Sports
    • College
    • High School
    • Mariners
    • Preps Stats
    • Seahawks
    • Sounders
    • UW Huskies
    • Politics
    • Living
    • Announcements
    • Food
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel
    • Entertainment
    • Arts & Culture
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Restaurants
    • Outdoors
    • Fishing

  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Place An Ad
  • Mobile & Apps

Local

Last WASL test results due Friday

KRIS SHERMAN; The News Tribune

    ORDER REPRINT →

August 11, 2009 12:00 AM

Results from the spring Washington Assessment of Student Learning will be released by Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn on Friday.

It’s the last great gasp of a high-stakes test whose many critics have called it cumbersome and onerous. Others have held fast to the 12-year-old WASL as a valid way to help ensure students are ready for the next grade, or for the world after high school.

Dorn, elected last year in part on a platform to junk the WASL, will replace it in the coming academic year with a set of new exams. They’ll be shorter, feature more multiple-choice questions and will move gradually toward a computer test-taking format.

Final WASL testing is under way this week for stragglers still needing to pass the exams. Their results will be available this fall.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Results from the 2009 WASL, taken last spring by thousands across the state, will stand as a major measure of how much Washington students know in core subjects such as reading, writing and math.

A year ago, WASL reading and math scores stalled out at most grade levels statewide. There were some modest gains among high school students in meeting graduation requirements in 2008.

The rollout Friday will be carefully watched by parents, teachers, administrators, community members, and, of course, students – although there will be fewer of the latter affected this time.

Dorn, in a move to save some $500,000, nixed the WASL for ninth-graders.

So if the test is changing, will the results of the “Old WASL” be meaningful?

Yes, says the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“It’s not the tests that are the yardstick, but the learning standards that are assessed on the tests,” OSPI spokesman Chris Barron said Monday.

Peninsula School District Superintendent Terry Bouck said WASL results help school leaders evaluate teaching in ways big and small. The numbers can be compared year-to-year to assess growth or spot weaknesses in districts or schools, while individual scores can pinpoint things an individual child needs to work on, he said.

The name doesn’t matter, Bouck added. “There will always be a test” of some kind. And it will always be just one measure of how well schools are doing, he said.

High school students in all grades must take and pass specific tests in order to graduate. If you’ve taken and passed the reading and writing WASL, you’re in good shape. If you still need to meet state standards, your fate will be left to the new tests.

The WASL will be replaced next year at the high school level by the High School Proficiency Exam. Students in third-through-eighth-grades will take the new Measurements of Student Progress. It will be shorter than the WASL.

About a quarter of the state’s sixth-through-eighth-graders are expected to take their exams online next spring, according to OSPI.

Dorn plans to have the majority of state testing online by the spring of 2012.

Kris Sherman: 253-597-8659

kris.sherman@thenewstribune.com

  Comments  

Videos

Tim Eyman under investigation in theft of chair from Lacey Office Depot

Downed trees, busted limbs keeps service company busy in wake of snowstorm

View More Video

Trending Stories

Woman dies after wreck on highway in Thurston County

February 17, 2019 11:20 AM

Infant girl, plus woman holding her, suffer gunshot wounds after man ‘shows off’ handgun at party

February 17, 2019 09:48 AM

Where’s the Lacey Albertsons? It’s gone, now that senior housing project is under way

February 18, 2019 02:53 PM

Woman who died in Thurston County wreck has been identified

February 18, 2019 04:59 PM

Local business owner says she is running for Lacey City Council

February 18, 2019 02:03 PM
Local display advertising by PaperG

Read Next

Local

Stacey Abrams: ‘Incompetence’ led to voting rights suppression effort

By William Douglas

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 19, 2019 07:20 AM

Stacey Abrams tells congressional subcommittee of toxic environment for voting rights enforcement

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Olympian

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE LOCAL

‘It is time to complete that revolution’: Sanders says he’s running for president

Local

‘It is time to complete that revolution’: Sanders says he’s running for president

February 19, 2019 04:00 AM
Woman who died in Thurston County wreck has been identified

Local

Woman who died in Thurston County wreck has been identified

February 18, 2019 04:59 PM
Local business owner says she is running for Lacey City Council

Local

Local business owner says she is running for Lacey City Council

February 18, 2019 02:03 PM
Where’s the Lacey Albertsons? It’s gone, now that senior housing project is under way

Local

Where’s the Lacey Albertsons? It’s gone, now that senior housing project is under way

February 18, 2019 02:53 PM
Trump proclaims ‘twilight’ of socialism in the Americas during Miami speech on Venezuela

Local

Trump proclaims ‘twilight’ of socialism in the Americas during Miami speech on Venezuela

February 18, 2019 03:28 PM
‘Uncertainty’ about whether snow is coming back to the lowlands this week, or just rain

Latest News

‘Uncertainty’ about whether snow is coming back to the lowlands this week, or just rain

February 18, 2019 10:20 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

The Olympian App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Contests-Promotions
  • Vacation Hold
  • Rewards
  • Pay Your Bill
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Photo Store
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Information
  • Place a Classified
  • Local Deals
  • Place an Obituary
  • Today's Circulars
  • Special Sections
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story