Students Tell Bergeson Wasl Test Is Flawed

The state’s education chief talked to Spokane Valley students, school officials and business people this week about the brave new world our schools are navigating.

It’s a good thing Terry Bergeson is used to hearing plain talk, because that’s what she got from a group of East Valley High School students.

Bergeson, who is Washington state’s superintendent of public instruction, asked a small group of EV juniors for feedback on the new 10th-grade test that they took last spring.

They described the test, sometimes called the WASL (for Washington Assessment of Student Learning), as long and difficult.

“Was it interesting?” Bergeson asked.

“No,” said Nikki Faso. “It didn’t benefit the students. Outside those three days (of test-taking) it didn’t help me at all.”

“We weren’t prepared. I didn’t understand what it was all about,” said Ashleigh Matthews.

And if these East Valley students panned their experience with the WASL, it’s because this test represents a new way of educating children.

Teachers and schools across the state are grappling with how to best prepare students for the tests, which are given each spring to fourth-, seventh- and 10th-graders.

The tests have been rolled out for the youngest students first. Last spring, 10th-graders took the test for the first time last spring.

Bergeson visited schools across the region on Thursday, spreading the gospel and asking for feedback.

Here are some of the topics she discussed:

The WASL tests are becoming a focus for teachers, especially in elementary schools, but it’s hard to remember that the target is better skills and better thinking, not just pretty test scores.

“The bottom line is, we started doing this because we wanted our diplomas to have value,” she said at a lunch sponsored by the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce.

What about incentives for 10th-graders, who may not care much about the new tests?

Bergeson floated a few ideas for incentives, ranging from a break on car insurance, to making entrance into Running Start classes available only to students who pass their 10th-grade tests and gain a certificate of mastery.

The fourth- and seventh-grade tests, Bergeson said, are supposed to hold schools accountable. But the 10th-grade tests are meant to hold students accountable.

East Valley students suggested having their teachers take the test. They also complained that the test problems were not relevant.

“I’m not going to look at a flagpole and say, `Hmm, I wonder how tall that is,”’ said Chantel LaTurner. “That’s just not something that I’m going to want to know.”

Bergeson, however, took the idea a step or two further, musing over the idea of bringing high school students into the discussion after the test, to see how questions could be improved.

Overall, the East Valley students bemoaned the fact that they knew so little about the new aims and emphases that the tests represent.