State school chief: Time for WASL to go

Randy Dorn, the new chief of Washington state schools, announced today that he plans to get rid of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning starting in 2010.

The announcement, made a week after Dorn took office, centers on a promise he made on the campaign trail to replace the WASL with a shorter, fairer, less-expensive exam.

No changes can be made to the WASL for this school year due to time constraints, Dorn said, but beginning in spring 2010, he plans to replace the WASL with two tests. In grades 3-8, students would take the Measurements of Student Progress (MSP). In high school, they would take something called the High School Proficiency Exams.

One way he plans to cut costs is to offer the tests via computer, rather than just on paper and pencil.

Dorn also announced that he will ask the state Legislature to delay the date when high-school students must pass a state test in math and science to earn their diplomas. That is now scheduled for 2013. Since 2008, students have had to pass the reading and writing sections of the 10th-grade WASL — or an approved alternative — to graduate.

Washington students have been taking the WASL for about a decade. The exams started in grades 4, 7, and 10. Grades 3, 5, 6 and 8 were recently added as well. There are reading and math sections at each grade level. In some grades, the exam includes writing and science, too. WASL results are used by the federal government to judge whether schools are making adequate progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Parts of the WASL were already scheduled to change. The Legislature voted last spring to replace the math section on the 10th-grade WASL by 2014 with exams students would take at the end of several math courses. State legislators also approved efforts by former Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson to shorten the WASL for students in grades 3-8 and translate its math and science sections into six languages.

Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com