Viewing your child's WASL booklets can be informative, amusing

BELLEVUE — Out of maternal compassion, I won't tell you the vocabulary question my daughter missed on the reading section of the 7th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

But it was so funny I laughed out loud in the conference room at the Bellevue School District office, where I spent an hour recently looking at her WASL test booklets, a seldom-used option open to every public-school parent.

Out of a total of 1.5 million WASL test booklets marked in 2007 by Washington students in grades 3 through 12, tests from just 746 students have been shown to parents.

Aside from gathering fodder to embarrass your children, looking at their booklets can help you better understand what the test is all about and how your children are doing compared with the standards the state expects them to reach.

Even an involved parent can learn a lot from the experience. Contrary to the groans I've heard each year from Perry, 13, about the time-consuming test, each section is actually pretty short, with fewer than 50 questions. The test creators also did a nice job of making the questions interesting and fun.

The state instituted the WASL as part of a sweeping education reform package and is now used to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind, the federal education-accountability law. It was designed to track how well schools were educating children, but critics say the test punishes students instead and creates unfair barriers for English language learners.

Students in grades 3 through 8 and 10 are required to take one or more segments of the reading, writing, math and science test each spring. Beginning in 2008, high-school students need to pass the writing and reading sections to graduate, although students who fail can use alternate means to prove they've met state standards.

I learned that the questions almost all seemed to relate to the kind of work my daughter is doing in the classroom. Only a few were confusing, although I could see how a student just learning English as her second language would struggle, even with the math test. The tests were definitely written at a 7th-grade reading level.

I can't give you any specific examples of test questions, because I signed a form promising I wouldn't share the content of the test with anyone. Parents are also forbidden to take notes or use a recording device while the test booklets are in their hands. But the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction sends a collection of sample questions when parents sign up to look at a child's test booklet, and old tests are available from the OSPI Web site.

I found one handout to be particularly useful: Frequently asked questions about scoring the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. This document also is available — although harder to find — on the information-packed OSPI Web site.

I was interested to learn more about the way scorers make their decisions (for short answer questions, they get a list of correct answers), what they do if they are unsure how to grade something (if the answer is unique, novel or unfamiliar, scorers seek help from a supervisor) and how their work is double-checked (every high-school essay is judged by two readers, and some of the 4th- and 7th-grade essays are as well).

I spent most of my time looking at the questions my daughter missed. I found she lost a few points by not following directions, some by making simple mistakes, but mostly she failed to answer correctly when she didn't know the answer.

I found one scoring error in my daughter's test even though I wasn't actively looking for mistakes. If your 10th-grader is a few points away from passing the writing or reading sections of the test, which became graduation requirements this year, any mistakes you find could avert a retake, because high-school parents may request a rescoring of their child's test.

I also left with a clear indication of where Perry needs to improve if she's going to pass the all-important high-school test in a few years. The test results we get in the mail each fall include a list of suggestions, but nothing is clearer than reading the actual essay that caused her to miss the mark in writing by one point.

Maybe Perry polished her persuasive writing skills by writing a letter to editors around the state begging them not to publish this story. I told her that was the only way to prevent her secrets from being shared with the public, because I needed to write this story to help other parents embarrass their own children.

I did promise to end my story by saying: Perry always passes the reading, math and science parts of the WASL.

Although there is no longer a deadline for requesting a test-booklet review, Washington parents who want to help their children prepare for this year's spring WASL should make their request soon, says Molly O'Connor, assessment communications manager at OSPI.

Request a test booklet review by phone or by going online, printing out a form, filling it out and mailing it to OSPI. Federal law gives the state 45 days to pull your child's test booklets and arrange to show them to you at your school district office.

O'Connor said the majority of requests have been for tests taken in grades 3-8, and OSPI officials say that's because parents want to make sure their kids are on track before they face the WASL graduation requirement.