Worries about WASL

Until a recent parent-teacher conference, Marc Walker didn’t even know his third-grade son would soon be taking the WASL exam. But his son, Kergan, certainly knew the state-mandated standardized test was on its way. “He shook his head vigorously and said, ‘Yeah, Dad, I’m really nervous about it,’ ” says Walker, whose son goes to Willard Elementary School. Though some third-graders took the Washington Assessment of Student Learning last year under a pilot program, this will be the first year that this youngest group of students must put their pencils to work. And many of them, like Walker’s son, are anxious about it.

Elementary school counselors say they hear from kids every day who are worked up over the WASL. In the days before next Monday’s test, counselors are spending many hours calming, coaching and cheering-on these young test takers.

“The big question is, ‘What if I don’t pass?’ ” says Melissa Alfstad, a counselor at Finch Elementary School.

Fortunately for the third-graders – and even fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders – the answer to that question is “nothing.” It’s only the 10th-graders who must pass the WASL to graduate from high school.

That’s just what Walker told his son.

“I told him it’s not going to affect whether you go to another grade,” he says. “I told him it’s a measurement tool.”

Becky Peters, a counselor at Mullan Road Elementary School, tells worried students that the test is just a way of seeing how everyone is doing.

“Our elected officials want to know how the kids are learning and how the teachers are teaching,” Peters says she tells them.

Schools around Spokane are trying a few mental tricks to help the young students be more at ease around WASL time.

At Finch, Alfstad is organizing an after-school yoga club for third- through sixth-graders, designed to help them learn self-soothing techniques to better cope with stress.

“This whole issue of anxiety is huge,” she says.

She encourages students to envision a “safe place” in which they’re taking the test and acing it. And she tells them to consider picking out a personal theme song, something to mentally “listen” to when negative thoughts intrude. (Think James Brown’s “I Feel Good.”)

“It’s more of an optimistic way of thinking,” she says.

Val Kjack, a counselor at Pratt and Wilson Elementary schools, says third-grade teachers are writing an encouraging cheer for the kids and that all students will be issued “special WASL pencils.”

“We bought these at the ‘smart pencil store,’ ” she tells the kids.

“We might as well have fun; we have to do it.”

Counselors encourage parents to help their kids stick to their regular routines around test time, says Katy Owsley, a Longfellow Elementary School counselor.

“You want to make it as natural and normal as possible,” Owsley says.

Try to help children go to bed at their usual time. Make sure they eat a healthy breakfast. Carve out some time in the day for fun and exercise.

Explain why they’re taking the WASL and also let them know that it’s likely they won’t know all of the answers.

“And that’s OK,” Owsley says.

Walker says his son is not normally a nervous kid, so he was surprised to learn he was so concerned about the WASL.

But he understands fear over failing such a big test.

“That would be pretty huge,” he says.

No matter what parents or counselors do, it’s likely there will still be some stress surrounding the WASL, especially for this new group of test takers. But even counselors say that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“We talk about ‘less stress,’ ” Peters says. “We don’t talk about ‘no stress.’ “

Says Alfstad: “There is a productive level of stress.”