Fourth-Graders Writing Essays In New Test - Not Just (A) (B) Or (C)

As part of the state’s education-reform efforts, thousands of elementary students are being given a new kind of comprehensive test aimed at making them think more critically.

Nearly 70,000 fourth-graders in about 241 school districts are taking the new test, which requires essays and short answers along with the standard multiple choice.

Students will need to draw graphs, complete charts or explain steps in solving problems in reading, writing, communication and math.

Getting away from multiple choice and having to explain an answer instead of choosing - or guessing - is “a different type of skill, a more life-type of skill,” Edmonds School Superintendent Brian Benzel said.

Benzel serves on the state Commission on Student Learning, the group charged with directing the educational reforms mandated by the 1993 Legislature.

The results will be analyzed to see where instruction has fallen short, not just in the fourth grade but “in first, second and third grade as well, because what we’re measuring is more than what the fourth-grade teacher had responsibility for,” said Gordon Ensign, assessment director for the Commission on Student Learning.

The commission has developed standards - or “essential academic learning requirements” - for students in the fourth, seventh and 10th grades.

The state currently tests fourth-graders and eighth-graders in multiple-choice tests given each year.

Unlike those tests, the new exam will evaluate student performance against a required standard for each subject. Even students who fail to reach the standard can receive various amounts of partial credit, depending on how close they come.