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Students get first crack at new test

10th-graders will start taking WASL replacement

By Marissa Harshman, Columbian Health Reporter
Published: March 15, 2010, 12:00am

County 10th-graders will sit down with sharpened pencils, test booklets and bubble sheets this week as standardized testing kicks off across the state.

But this year, students will tackle fewer questions with shorter answers and will spend less time testing. Beginning Tuesday, 10-graders will take the High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) for the first time. The five-day test is replacing the eight-day Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).

Even though the name and the format of the test have changed, the objective has not.

“Everything we know about the new test is it’s still based on the standards we’ve been teaching toward,” said Layne Curtis, Vancouver Public Schools’ manager for curriculum and instruction.

The test will, as its name suggests, measure the proficiency of students and serve as the state’s high school exit exam. Students must pass the HSPE or a state-approved alternative in reading and writing in order to graduate. High school students who did not pass the reading and writing portion of the WASL as 10th graders must pass those portions of the HSPE to graduate.

High-schoolers across the state will test in reading on Tuesday and writing on Wednesday and Thursday. They will complete the math and science portions of the test April 13 and 15, respectively.

Younger students will also encounter new tests this year. Instead of the WASL, third- through eighth-graders will take the Measurements of Student Progress (MSP) exam in May. The reading, math and science portions will take one day, as opposed to two days with the WASL. The writing portion will still take two days to complete. And this year, about 25 percent of the state’s middle school students will take their test online, including several hundred in Clark County.

The shorter test time has received praise from area school officials.

“I think it’s great we’re able to reduce the days,” said Dave Holmes, La Center High School principal and assistant superintendent for assessment. “The time in the classroom and the instructional time we won’t be missing is great.”

Holmes thinks the students will benefit as well.

“We do think our students suffered from test fatigue,” he said.

Besides testing for fewer days, students of all ages will also experience a new test format.

The tests still include multiple-choice and short-answer questions, but the four-point essay questions requiring responses of a page or more have been eliminated on the reading, math and science tests. The change allows students to show they are able to solve the problems while not losing points for poor writing abilities on tests not related to writing, according to the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The writing portion of the test still includes essay questions.

School officials aren’t worried by the format changes, but they are relaying the information to their students.

“We worked really hard for years to get students ready for those test formats, now that’s changing,” said Tanis Knight, Camas School District assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “It’s just a shift in format, and you want to make sure there aren’t surprises for students.”

School officials are also beginning to prepare the middle school students who will test on computers this year. Online testing is offered for the reading and math portions of the test for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The online test will offer the same types of questions as the pencil-and-paper exams. The state plans to expand online testing each year to include more grades and subjects.

In Clark County, some middle school students in the Camas, Green Mountain, Ridgefield, Washougal and Woodland districts will take a portion of their tests online. The Home Choice Academy in Vancouver is also participating in online testing.

At many participating schools, teachers and principals are taking advantage of webinars that explain the new format. The state Web site, http://www.k12.wa.us, also offers tutorials and sample questions for students.

Patricia Boles, Ridgefield School District assistant superintendent and director of instructional services, said students in Ridgefield will rotate through computer labs and use laptop computers to complete their tests.

“We figured this is going to be the way of the future, so we may as well jump onboard and participate,” Boles said.

While some may worry the new format could impede the testing process, Boles disagrees. She suspects the online format will make the experience feel less like standardized testing and more like answering survey questions.

Even though the tests’ formats and lengths have changed, school officials’ opinions about the importance of state testing doesn’t appear to have wavered.

“I just know our teachers, they take this very seriously,” Knight said. “They want to give their students as many opportunities to be successful as possible.”

Marissa Harshman: 360-735-4546 or marissa.harshman@columbian.com.

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Columbian Health Reporter