Out with the WASL: new student tests to be shorter, eventually done online — and renamed

Say goodbye to the WASL.

The new state tests to measure student achievement, which will roll out next spring, will be shorter than the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Eventually, they will be taken on a computer.

And they won't even be called the WASL.

State Superintendent Randy Dorn outlined the new test today at a news conference in Renton, where he also released new WASL test results, saying 93 percent of the class of 2009 passed the reading and writing portions of the test.

Last year, when passing those portions became a requirement for graduating from high school, the pass rate was about 92 percent.

To Dorn, the numbers, despite their slight improvement, mask the real problem: that about a quarter of students drop out of school and never graduate.

He vowed to make reducing the dropout rate a top priority.

For Dorn, elected last year, revamping students assessments is the fulfillment of a promise he made in a campaign to oust longtime superintendent Terry Bergeson, who helped develop the WASL.

In an opinion piece published in The Seattle Times in February, Dorn called the WASL "a flawed, burdensome test that has overwhelmed our students, teachers and parents."

The new elementary- and middle-school tests will be called Measurements of Student Progress (MSP), and the high-school tests will be known as the High School Proficiency Exams (HPSE).

Under Dorn's redesign, students will still need to pass the reading and writing portions of the tests to graduate from high school. And the class of 2013 will also have to pass the math portion of the test to graduate.

But the elementary- and middle-school tests will have a different purpose — they're designed to give teachers and families a way to measure how a student is progressing.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a bill that set in motion a process to redesign the WASL. That bill gave Dorn the authority to begin reworking the test.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com