WASL time nears for schools

Test booklets start to roll in

As he scanned a master list and matched names with the correct student labels, Mike Riggs was carefully counting the looming stacks of test booklets.

Riggs, principal at Knolls Vista Elementary, is one of many school administrators statewide who is kicking off the first leg of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Yesterday, the WASL booklets were sitting on a table in Riggs' office. The booklets are like gold and considered irreplaceable by test graders.

The booklets have students' names and ethnic backgrounds, complete with bar codes. If a student moves out of his or her school district, the test booklets cannot be reused because of that individualized information.

"We started preparing for it about August 28th and even before that," Riggs said.

Though the testing window for Washington state doesn't begin until next Monday, Riggs said that the test's directions are being read in his building. All year long, students hear about the WASL and are told about its importance, in addition to learning about the significance of doing their very best, Riggs said.

Overall, teaching staff is trying to focus on the curriculum at the beginning grade levels, especially with reading. Riggs called reading "the most important skill."

Knolls Vista tries to take a long range approach, with knowing the exam is part of daily learning and something a child will encounter the moment he/she enters elementary school, Riggs said.

Craig Dorsing, a fourth-grade teacher at Knolls Vista, is just one of many staff members who has had their time consumed by the WASL.

"I spent probably in my day today, at least four hours directly related to WASL preparation and that's been the case for the past number of months," Dorsing said.

This is the third year Dorsing has given the test and last year, he said he spent "hundreds and hundreds of hours," setting up his curriculum for the upcoming year.

"I am constantly modifying my curriculum to meet WASL," Dorsing said.

Over the past few years, Dorsing said he's watched students' attitudes change about the test, because teachers are starting to implement repercussions for "not getting it."

These consequences range from staying in at recess to extra tutorial time and better communications with parents. Also, the school district is now more apt to retain students if they're having difficulties with the test, Dorsing said.

Dorsing said that if there was one thing he'd say that would help the teachers and students, is that parents need to start preparing their children for academia early on. This preparation starts at around the kindergarten and first-grade years, emphasizing that they can get this and they will get this, Dorsing said.

In regards to the test as a whole, Dorsing said that there's aspects of the test that are good, such as the reading portion. However, he did say that he found the writing area frustrating because it isn't necessarily applicable to a student's life or age-appropriate.

"If it's not ultimately applicable to a career and daily life, why are we asking fourth-graders to do this?" Dorsing asked.

Dorsing advised students to prepare all year for the test and not to be lackadaisical about it.

Across town at Chief Moses Middle School, more and more students are seeing the WASL outside of the currently required seventh-grade test through specific subject pilot exams.

Mark Johnson, principal at Chief Moses, said that this is the second year the school district's eighth-graders have taken the science WASL.

Sixth- and eighth-graders at Chief Moses will be piloting a reading portion of the WASL in May. Johnson explained a test pilot as "a test of the test," which helps test writers and administrators learn about the overall reliability of the test questions.

"What will happen, is, the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills) test we give at the third-, sixth- and ninth- grades will eventually go away," Johnson explained.

Michelle Price, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Moses Lake School District, explained that in two years, the WASL will be administered in third- through ninth-grades.

Price also said that parents can visit the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction's Web site to view past WASL tests.

She advised that students get plenty of rest, attend school daily and eat nutritionally. Students also need to recognize that passing the 10th-grade WASL is a graduation requirement for this year's eighth-graders.

On a positive note, though, the state legislature recently approved the funding for up to four 10th-grade WASL retakes in the areas not passed, Price said.

"We need our families to know this is an important assessment," Price said. "It is doable and we have some wonderful students who get great family support." If parents do have concerns about the WASL, Price encouraged them to first contact their child's teacher.

The WASL isn't the only way the Moses Lake School District gauges a child's academic level. The Northwest Evaluation Association has a levels test that monitors student growth over time and this test is used in the district.

On the higher education level, the University of Washington recently announced its plans to use WASL scores when awarding undergraduate scholarships.

According to a press release from the UW, Tim Washburn, assistant vice president for enrollment services, said that the UW's admissions office considers the WASL a valuable assessment of student learning through the 10th-grade.

A preliminary study suggests that the WASL tests administered in 10th-grade may predict first year college performance as well as the SAT-1 (Scholastic Aptitude Test) or ACT (American College Test) exams usually given during the junior year, stated the UW's press release.

But if anyone knows about the the WASL, it is Vivian Willis, a mother of six from Moses Lake. She said her children who took the WASL had a positive experience.

"I really do think they have to have some way of evaluating them," Willis said.

Willis said that when her children did take the test, that they passed it and overall, the experience wasn't that big of a deal. At the time, Willis said that she and other parents were advised to make sure their children received adequate rest and nutrition.

"We took it seriously," Willis said.

On the Net:

OSPI's Web site (with sample WASL questions): http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/testquestions.aspx