Talk:Washington Assessment of Student Learning

message: I am no fan of no WASL, because, as a tenth grader currently being subjected by it. However, this article is clearly being written from an anti-WASL base. There are no mentions of its negetive intents, feedback related to criticism, and there are sourced "facts" that reek of being part of the 99 percent of facts that are just be made up. Are there numbers of SPEC people failing the WASL? How could this statistic possibly be determined? I can testify that reading is hard and i cant read. Many statements, Enough specific ones. Not broad enough. This article needs a major NPOV clean-up and expansion. --Me 06:66, 6 April 66 (UTC)
*support* hi i dont like the wasl because now iam bck fiv grds
Agreed. Also, there seems to be bias in the anecdote of the fourth grader who was suspended, leaving no citation to the incedent. --Luke 10:21, 21 April 2006 (PST)
People who promote the WASL are free to add to this. This provides significate information for
those who want to what what the WASL is all about, and where it came from.
:: Well, those that are most likely to add to this are A. teachers or school administrators, B. students, or C. parents of students (such as myself). Category A. sees the wasl as a fuss that tests them based on their students ability, category B. is mostly angry at having to take another standardized test, and category C. hears all the complaints from category B. in addition to feeling angry that their child has to sit through this test instead of actually learning something. There is no simple way to make this unbiased, and that is a rule when it comes to the press. In general, it only seems to be adults without kids, the odd teacher/administrator which feels a need for some standards, or politicians which either are trying to look like they care about kids/schools or genuinely think the WASL is the solution to all or many of our schools' problems. Perhaps a pro/con section is the more probable solution than total neutrality.
::Just go to the Partnership for Learning, they get tons of money to promote their POV. Nobody pays people to add stuff to WP. --Sugarcaddy 01:14, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: A study was done on students applying to take college courses in high school. These students are the cream of the class, yet well over 20% of applicants did not pass all the WASL tests when the goal in 1997 was to have EVERYBODY pass at an even higher rate than these wonder kids. When the test first came out, NO elementary school, not even the top ones met the 80% passing goal. What does it mean when the goal for everybody EXCEEDS the level of the best school? Can you say "unrealistic"? Anybody who believes Bergeson's promises that everybody will pass doesn't see the emporer's clothes. --Sugarcaddy 01:14, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: How about the fact that our superintendent of public instruction, when speaking to the media about the dismal pass rate in the high school math portion said two things: A} we don't believe there's a problem with the test; and B} we don't believe there's a problem with the teachers. So what she's in effect saying, is that the vast majority of students are stupid. I find that very difficult to believe. I also find it very difficult to believe the vast majority of teachers are poor teachers. The far more likely cause for dismal pass rates across schools is that the one constant among them - the test - is malformed. 24.22.246.142 (talk) 03:20, 4 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Neutrality

message: WASL → Washington Assessment of Student Learning – Expand acronym.
===Survey===
:Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your opinion with ~~~~
:#Support; I mean, that IS the name of the danged thing. (But don't get me wrong--I love the WASL! Sleeping with my baby! Yeah!) Matt Yeager ♫ (Talk?) 06:26, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 09:33, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Requested move

message: :Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your opinion with ~~~~
:#Support; I mean, that IS the name of the danged thing. (But don't get me wrong--I love the WASL! Sleeping with my baby! Yeah!) Matt Yeager ♫ (Talk?) 06:26, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Done. —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 09:33, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Survey

message: "Links that are added to promote a site, that primarily exist to sell products or services, with objectionable amounts of advertising, or that that require payment to view the relevant content" is under "Links normally to be avoided". So how come there is a "Commercial WASL preparation and practice programs" section with links? --Spyderchan 18:24, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Commercial Links 

message: The article says:
::The Partnership For Learning claimed that the 10th grade WASL only requires 8th grade level math, but many samples require mastering algebra, a topic some students will not take until college.
In the UK, "algebra" at high school (aka secondry school) level means anything involving equations with unknowns in (x and y, for example), whereas "algebra" at college (aka University) level means group theory and similar concepts. They're completely different things. Which is meant in the quoted sentence? If US students don't do basic equations until college, they are very behind, and if they're expected to know group theory to graduate high school, they're either very ahead or the test is extremely unreasonable (far more so than the article seems to imply). Can someone explain that sentence to me? --Tango 21:52, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That kind of basic algebra, even up to simultaneous equations, is part of GCSE maths in the UK (that's 10th grade in your system, I think - aged 16). Everyone is expected to do GCSE maths, although there are different tiers depending on ability (the teacher decides what to put you in for - each tier has a different range of grades you can get, with some overlap) - very basic algebra is in even the lowest tier, I think. We don't do calculus until A-level, so only people that choose to do Maths A-level do it at all (that's 11th and 12th grades for you, I think - age 17 and 18). I can't remember when we first learnt about similar trianges... may not have been until your 6th grade, but I'm not sure. There is some matrix work in the "Further Maths" A-level (basically, you can do double maths if you're good enough, and it covers some more advanced topics). --Tango 09:40, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Define "master algebra"... 

message: From the opening section:
:The state-level WASL assessment includes multiple-choice, short-answer, essay, and problem solving tasks. Students with special needs are accommodated in the normal way by the provision of additional time, special equipment or tests in different formats. The WASL appears to have been designed to invert every criticism of standardized tests, but in fact bring new problems. Standardized tests were introduced to measure ability of very large populations at a low cost. The WASL is based on the Authentic Assessment movement. Many educators laud such tests for teaching purposes, but they warn they are not practical for large scale assessment; even the test notes for WASL warn that such scores should not be used for high stakes purposes such as grade promotion or graduation, which is exactly what legislators have passed into law. Multiple choice questions cost only a couple of dollars to score, compared to 30 to 40 dollars for manually scored tests. Machine scored items have only one correct answer, while agreement of barely over 55 percent on a 4-point range is considered to be accurate for the WASL. The Partnership for Learning says that WASL was developed and scored by teachers, but scorers only need a bachelors degree and a few days of training to score these tests.
Here are some changes that I'll put in, unless someone can give a good reason not to:
1) The line about "appears to have been designed" should be completely removed, IMO. Without a citation it doesn't meet Wikipedia standards.
2) The ultimate responsibility for what can and can't be done with the WASL belongs to the legislature; therefore, if they say its a graduation requirement, its a graduation requirement. A link to the WASL test notes so that people can see this perceived inconsistency for themsevles might help, but otherwise....meh.
3) The yay or nay nature of multiple choice answers can be taken either way; many would argue (and I'm one of them) that the WASL is a better assessment than the ITBS because it asks for application above filling in a circle.
4) Unless it can be demonstrated that the scorers are deficient, I think that last line is a non-sequiter and should either be removed from the open or expanded upon in the criticism section.
Thoughts? RyanGrant 22:02, 2 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: A Proposed Change

message: Why is the Discovery Institute included in the list of External Links? I see no reference to the "institute" in the text, so it just seems like some free advertisement for creationists. - Prothonotar (talk) 05:16, 3 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discovery Institute 

message: I noticed an update to the home page stating that the WASL was being thrown out in favor of the HSPE and MSP.
"It has been thrown out and replaced by the High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) for high school students and the Measurements of Students Progress (MSP) for grades 3-8."
This is not entirely true. While Randy Dorn would like you to believe that, as that was his major campaign topic, the HSPE and MSP are just the WASL, renamed and repacked for better public opinion.
The WASL has finished its last year as the WASL. This year saw some lower grade level students piloting online testing. This past year also saw more multiple choice questions and less response questions and also shorter tests in general.
What's the difference for the new tests coming next year? Just the name(s).
The item bank is the same, the vendors are the same, the underlying staff and principles are all the same. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.121.213.144 (talk) 00:09, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  WASL Not Being "Tossed Out" 

message: I've removed an old neutrality tag from this page that appears to have no active discussion per the instructions at Template:POV:
::This template is not meant to be a permanent resident on any article. Remove this template whenever:
::#There is consensus on the talkpage or the NPOV Noticeboard that the issue has been resolved
::#It is not clear what the neutrality issue is, and no satisfactory explanation has been given
::#In the absence of any discussion, or if the discussion has become dormant.
Since there's no evidence of ongoing discussion, I'm removing the tag for now. If discussion is continuing and I've failed to see it, however, please feel free to restore the template and continue to address the issues. Thanks to everybody working on this one! -- Khazar2 (talk) 01:00, 17 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  removing POV tag with no active discussion per [[Template:POV]] 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090326015246/http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/ReadingPracticeTests/AppendixA-HSreading.pdf to http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/ReadingPracticeTests/AppendixA-HSreading.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20060210202258/http://learningcurveonline.org:80/reports/kplu1c.asp to http://www.learningcurveonline.org/reports/kplu1c.asp
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20091007091957/http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksDance.pdf to http://www.k12.wa.us/Assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksDance.pdf
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 23:19, 10 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20081205002956/http://k12academics.com/wasl_controversy.htm to http://www.k12academics.com/wasl_controversy.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080127172151/http://www.k12.wa.us:80/assessment/WASL/FAQ.aspx to http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/FAQ.aspx#7
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110927135302/http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/TestAdministration/pubdocs/2007-08ScoringAnnouncement.pdf to http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/TestAdministration/pubdocs/2007-08ScoringAnnouncement.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20091007091946/http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksMusic.pdf to http://www.k12.wa.us/Assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksMusic.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20091007091832/http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksTheatre.pdf to http://www.k12.wa.us/Assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksTheatre.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20091007092339/http://www.k12.wa.us/assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksVA.pdf to http://www.k12.wa.us/Assessment/WASL/Arts/CBAs/SingleTasksVA.pdf
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 04:08, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified