The departing lesson of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning

FINDINGS by an education nonprofit organization that the Washington Assessment of Student Learning improved students' writing and reading skills offers a much-needed burnishing of the exam's legacy.

The WASL, long maligned for being too hard on students or not hard enough, is done. Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn is making good on his campaign promise to replace the test with shorter, cheaper assessments next spring.

But the study by the Center on Education Policy underscores the need for a conversation about which parts of the WASL worked and should be retained under a new exam.

Education officials ought to pay attention. Researchers found an overwhelming majority of teachers thought the WASL should be improved, not eliminated. More importantly, those teachers credit the exam's essay questions with improving students' writing and reasoning skills.

Dorn's quest for standardized tests that are quicker and less expensive understandably required a trade-off. Essay questions will give way to multiple-choice questions and those that can be answered in three or four sentences.

A couple of years in the future, a $4 million appropriation by the state Legislature should yield diagnostic classroom tests designed to pinpoint exactly where students are having trouble.

The Washington Education Association disputes some of the policy center's findings, pointing to its survey showing teachers wanted the WASL replaced.

Both sides are stuck on a moot point. The line of debate ought to move to how well the next test can reflect the tremendous value placed on reading, writing and critical-analysis skills. If the WASL taught us nothing else, it was the importance of these skills.