Today’s congratulatory press releases announcing results from the 2005 Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) could have been written last year. Unfortunately, while we all love good news, the euphoria doesn’t reflect the reality in our state’s K-12 schools.
Consider a brief analysis of the claims and facts related to the WASL scores...
CLAIM (2005): “Student achievement reaches new heights.” (OSPI, 8/31/05)
CLAIM (2004): “Washington’s students reached higher levels of achievement on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning than they ever have before. Outstanding gains were made in many struggling schools across Washington.” (OSPI, 9/01/04)
FACTS: Many schools did show dramatic gains on the 2004 and 2005 WASL tests. However:
++ In an effort to bolster scores in 2004, the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) lowered the academic bar students must meet to score “proficient” on the 4th and 7th grade reading and math portions of the WASL. The lower bar made it possible for individual schools to register gains of up to 15 percentage points in the number of students passing some grades and subjects on the 2004 test, with no actual change in academic performance.
++ Scoring “proficient” on the WASL isn’t necessarily impressive. Depending on the subject, students have to earn between 58 and 75 percent of the total points possible to be considered proficient.
++ A recent study published by Achieve, Inc. (commissioned by state education officials) compared content standards on the 10th grade WASL and similar exams in six other states (those that volunteered for in-depth analysis) to international exams and the ACT (college admission test). For Washington, the study concluded: 1) writing standards are strong; 2) reading standards are “relatively strong” when ranked with the other states, but amount to 8th or 9th grade content on the national ACT; and 3) math standards are the lowest among the seven-state comparison, amounting to 6th or early 7th grade content internationally.
++ Despite the low “proficiency” and content standards, a significant majority of students in every grade tested failed at least one section of the 2005 WASL (reading, writing or math). Among 4th graders, 55.0 percent failed at least one section. Among 7th graders: 59.1 percent. And among 10th graders (who must pass all three sections to graduate from high school starting with the class of 2008), 58.0 percent failed at least one subject.
++ Since the WASL is subjectively graded, it cannot be considered scientifically valid and reliable. Part of the problem can be seen in our Superintendent’s own description of the test: “The WASL uses far more open-ended questions than other states’ tests to measure the higher-level thinking, reasoning and communications skills intrinsic to Washington’s academic standards.” While it is valuable for teachers to assess these skills in their students, the model is not appropriate as a statewide, standardized measure.
++ Even as WASL scores show dramatic increases over the past several years, other more consistent measures of student achievement (such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the National Assessment of Educational Progress) show only slight gains in early grades, and flat or declining scores in others. State education officials successfully lobbied the legislature to drop Washington’s participation in the Iowa test starting this year.
We all want to hear good news about education, but we shouldn’t manufacture it at the expense of the truth. It’s time to acknowledge the full scope of our state’s education crisis, reject the failed status quo, and start aggressively implementing meaningful solutions. It’s the least we can do for the students who are counting on an excellent education to enable them to pursue and achieve their dreams.
It would be a shock if she did well, and if she did, I say wow!! Not for her, but for those that didn't do as well.
Posted by: swatter on August 31, 2005 02:57 PMVery telling that Iowa test has been dropped. Timothy's right: the Iowa test costs half as much as WASL.
Posted by: Shannon K on August 31, 2005 03:32 PMDump the WASL and replace it with ITBS. Save a fortune and actually measure something.
Posted by: huckleberry on August 31, 2005 03:49 PM"In 2004, King County was among only a handful of large areas across the nation where pay dropped and poverty rates jumped, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's annual survey of income, poverty and health care coverage. At the same time, the ranks of the wealthy grew and the percentage of those in the middle shrank.
The census report outlined a Seattle-area economy that was out of step with the nation last year. Nationally, the poverty rate rose only slightly from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 12.7 percent in 2004, and real median household income was unchanged at $44,389."
From: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/238741_countingpoor31.html
Unless she happens to be white. Because being white is bad...
Then again, they would give her an OK anyway because they wouldn't want to look bad. And everyone knows that in Washington State, public school education is NOT really about educating kids, but about looking good...
Posted by: ERNurse on August 31, 2005 04:56 PMWhat happened Amy, did you bruise all three of your brain cells on the other threads?
Posted by: alphabet soup on August 31, 2005 05:37 PMAs far as the math part goes, I agree that you have to be a decent writer to get high scores, but I also think that the level of math required is actually very reasonable. Would I like to see it harder? Probably. Would the kids pass it if it were? Maybe. The point is that we are requiring standards, forcing the schools to teach the standards, and measuring the level at which the kids are achieving those standards. Is there a perfect test? I suspect that any test we administered would have its fans and it critics. So we do with what we have, and we make changes to fine tune it as we can.
Posted by: Calvin A. on August 31, 2005 07:32 PMI suspect that any test we administered would have its fans and it critics. So we do with what we have, and we make changes to fine tune it as we can.
Hard to argue with you there, Cal. Nothing is perfect, is it? So does it make sense to spend 10 times as much for one imperfect test in favor of another? Couldn't we survive with a cheap, imperfect test instead of an expensive one?
Has anyone been watching the trends in SAT? Yup, they are moving towards essays, and open ended questions. I imagine the price of the SAT is climbing. Now who is likely to benefit as the SAT morphs from fill in the bubbles towards subjective written responses?
Posted by: huckleberry on August 31, 2005 09:12 PMThe entire school grinds to a halt for the 10 days this is administered to the sophomores.
Pullman School is in a world of hurt next year because the WASL is scheduled during their spring break.
I will be petitioning to see my daughters results. She took it last year (10th grade) and doesn't need it to graduate. However, I understand, these results will be considered when she applies to college.
Posted by: cc on August 31, 2005 11:39 PMCalm down. The 7 states are Florida, NJ, MD, MA, Ohio and Texas (they were in the first report) and then OPSI asked them to compare the WASL. Achieve,Inc. which is a group of bipartisan governors and CEOs that set up this foundation to study education issues. And yes, it was factual. They asked for the exams as well as information about performance levels and requirements to pass (one state allows a student to fail one portion as long as they have a 2.5 in that subject throughout high school; things like that). They break out the levels of math in the math portions of each exam; interesting what each state does (or doesn't do). Go to achieve.org and read it.
What's funny to me is on the one hand OSPI says we have one of the toughest exams in the country and yet, you hear whining about it's not hard enough. Can't have it both ways. You also cannot adequately tell anyone the state of American education with 50 different tests and 50 different ways of interpreting test scores (what's a pass and what's a fail and how does it count in the end). If George Bush was really serious about trying to see how American students are doing against the rest of the world we would have one test that would let us know. It would cost less and tell us more.
Posted by: Mel Westbrook on September 1, 2005 04:47 PMNow for the "hysterical" part.....
Oh look, Headlice is back! It was getting awfully quiet around here without your insane posts. Was it another involuntary, or did you just walk out this time?
Posted by: alphabet soup on September 1, 2005 05:47 PMTeaching to the test. That's all we hear from the anti- crowd. One thought. If the WASL is testing the standards, and we teach the standards, are we teaching to the test or does the test measure the standards? That's the question I never hear the anti- crowd answer.
Why don't we have a national test? It's called federalism. Most Americans still don't want the federal government running everything. I've heard it called the "laboratories of democracy". Tie federal funding to some kind of testing mechanism and let the states compete to see who can do a better job. Presumably if your state sees someone else doing a better job of educating and/or testing, you will check it out and, if its legitimate, adopt it yourself. Why haven't we just gone with the "cheaper and better" Iowa test? See my first answer.
Just think, what if the "better" federal test had been the WASL? Would we have any other states to look at and see how they were doing? Nope. Instead this thread would full of rants about how that "dictator" Bush imposed a national test on all of us.
Posted by: Calvin A on September 1, 2005 09:27 PMIt seems to me that many people that are pro-WASL, have never been in a classroom lately. I can see how the WASL and accountability can sound good, but let me share some of my experiences. I have four children ages 7 to 20.
A few years ago, my oldest son failed the writing portion of his WASL test. This suprised me because he had good grades in his writing classes. We were worried about how this would look on his application for colleges, so we paid to have him tutored over the summer. He forfeited a good summer job to go to WASL writing practice. It appeared to have paid off because the next time he took the WASL he passed.
Now fast forward to his first year in college. He was expecting to ace his writing class because he did everything just how his WASL teacher had taught him. His first paper he recieved a "D". The professor did not care for this "WASL" style. So he went back to his old style of writing, and recieved a good grade in the class. We wasted a lot of time and money on WASL prep, which is being sold to us as "what businesses will expect of you" (I guess it'a a matter of opinion). We found this far from being true.
In my younger kids's classrooms, I volunteer 2 days a week. WASL prep starts in kindergarten! When I started to ask "why?". I was reminded that their school has the highest WASL scores in the district, and they are proud that they start teaching to the test so young!
The kindergarteners took a "practice" WASL test. Walls were covered, the door was locked, and they were not allowed to ask the teacher for help. This was to get the kindergarteners used to a testing environment!
In my third graders class, about 2 months before the WASL test, the students stopped going to music class, so they could spend the 35 minutes (twice a week) prepping for WASL. I witnessed the teacher teaching "the WASL way" for answering essay questions. She told them things like long answers usually get more credit then short answers, so make sure you write as much as you can!
To this day I do not trust the WASL. I have learned how it is scored. I feel that kids spend so much valuable class time prepping for this test, that they miss out on learning the basics. At this school that had high WASL scores, I felt the need to supplement my kids with the basics at home.
In high school, when the sophmores take the WASL test, the whole school almost shuts down. Non-testing students miss up to 15 hours of classtime while WASL occurs! What a waste!
So please, if you are pro-WASL, please indicate your experience in the classroom, and maybe I'll take your opinion more seriously.
Posted by: Senna on September 1, 2005 09:53 PMFor good news check this site:
http://www.washingtonea.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=435&Itemid=1
Something tells me you are a teacher.
I have noticed that some people love to bash the public education system and blame the teachers; yet, they have never been in a classroom.
If you are a teacher, could you give me an insight of how most teachers feel about WASL?
I think you have summed up the current state of the WASL very well. I was a big fan of the WASL once, and I would still like to be, but it just isn't working. Perhaps we could replace it with the ITBS, draw a line somewhere that we think demonstrates acceptable competency in each area, and be done with it. Pretty simple, huh?
The "big" idea of the WASL for me is that it provides a single, state-wide standard to hold schools and teachers accountable. After the mandatory correction for student demographics, we can easily compare school to school and district to district. Or we should be able to... I remember hearing something about the test beig administered differently at different schools. Oh well...
The latest buzz coming out of Olympia is that it is not fair to hold the teachers at a school for any particular crop of students. They may have been damaged when they arrived. So now the hope is to measure the cumulative improvements in individual students. More $$$. It strikes me as oddly reminiscient of Quality Assurance procedures at a certain large aircraft manufacturer in this state. Come to think of it, Frank S was a part of the blue ribbon panel that hatched the WASL, wasn't he? Anyway, it is a little disturbing to treat kids like sheets of aluminum and classrooms like soul-less processes, but that is what our scientifically minded experts feel we should be doing.
I think public schools have lost it. I want to start over. Does anyone agree?
Most teachers? Most teachers are opposed to the WASL. However, a better question might be why are they opposed. With WASL, accountable for educating their students. Without WASL, teach just like they've always taught, no accountability. Not saying that's all of them, just one obvious possibility. Sort of the whole point of the "standards" movement. Whereas the opposition generally argues that "standards are unfair to the kids, students learn in different ways, one way of assessment isn't good for every kid" in otherwords, don't assess except to the extent that the teacher says. Well, imo, that's how it has been going for the past thirty years. Standards get lower and lower as we worry about the students' self esteem instead of whether they are learning. Kids are, as pointed out above, taking algebra two years later than they used to. Its all very well to say that high stakes testing is not the answer, but then what is? Certainly not the status quo.
Posted by: Calvin A on September 2, 2005 06:01 AMFor those of you wishing your child's results they are now in the schools and you may ask your principal to see your child's scores. You may request to see your child's test through OSPI. This is the one thing I believe the legislature did that was positive.
Are the public schools better than they were as a result of the WASL. Let me preface that I have taught in a private school and we as did my wife. I also served on a private school board of directors. One child of my own children attend a private Christian academy. Now back to the question I posed. No, the schools are not better as a result of the WASL. They are better due to a push for standards, weak as they are. The WASL itself is not all bad, but it is too expensive for the little information you get. The reading section of the WASL is rigorous and reflects results that I have seen on a number of other meausures including ITBS and NWEA. The math portion of the WASL has some real problems. There is a little information about problem solving that is gained, but some of the problems are non-sense. The writing portion of the WASL has improved the quality of writing in the schools. Students are writing much more and they are not copying the encyclopedias. The problem with the writing WASL is in using it as a graduation requirement. Writing is too subjective and I have been told by teachers at the correcting sessions that there are debates about scoring every year.
Could we get the same better academics without the WASL? Yes, there was almost a total lack of academics stressed in the 1980s and 1990s. Creating standard and holding schools accountable will improve schools.
I believe that NWEA, ITBS, or a recognized standardized test should be used for AYP and reporting to the citizens the progress of students and schools. The WASL is too expensive, asks silly questions in math, and is very subjective. I would keep the writing portion and put in perm folders for parents to reivew to see their student's progress, but drop it as a graduation requirement. I think the teachers in each district need to be trained to score their own writing and exchange between buildings. This would save a lot of money. I also believe that the comparision of reading passages in the WASL are good. This too can be done a lot cheaper by having teachers exchange between buildings and correcting. I do not believe that a standardized test can fully test this skill.
I hope this has helped.
Doctor K
Posted by: Doctor K on September 2, 2005 10:31 AMMy own WASL story is that when my older son was in 7th grade and took the WASL, the scores came back low in two math sections. (This from a kid who never scored lower than 98% in any math testing in his life and was in the gifted program.) Because he was in the gifted program he was eligible to take the SAT for free. He did and got average scores...for a high school junior. So I went to his counselor and asked, "What am I to make of these WASL scores versus the SAT scores? He can't graduate from Seattle Public Schools because of the WASL scores but he could apply to UW because of the SAT score?" This was several years ago before all this test anxiety started getting hyped up. The counselor told me, not to worry, the WASL was just there as a guidepost and wouldn't amount to much. Well, despite what Terry Bergeson likes to say about everyone making too much of the WASL, it has become a high stakes test by virture of the fact you have to pass it to graduate. Interestingly, OSPI was supposed to have come up with alternative assessments last year but I still haven't seen them. Many other states have them and most allow them after 2-3 tries. (Of course, how would most people feel if you failed a test you needed to graduate 2 or 3 times? Probably pretty demoralized.)
Posted by: Mel Westbrook on September 2, 2005 03:28 PMTo view or become part of an online chat you need to join their "Yahoo Group".
All that will be asked of you is an email address and password.
At this site you will see documentation from OSPI that says the cost of WASL is $18.00 per tested subject. Tenth-graders test in four subjects, so that makes it $72.00 per test.
See what others are saying about WASL!
Recent posts include:
Parents that have recently viewed their child's completed WASL test
How to opt out
possible class-action lawsuits
What teachers think of WASL (MothersAgainstWASL has two teachers on their executive board)
Parents showing frustration over the WASL take over of schools
Posted by: JJ on September 4, 2005 06:35 PM