A bit of a WASL rant

It's WASL week here at school, my first time since I was in fourth grade.

I told the other teachers that I'd taken the WASL (granted, it was the pilot), and they all groaned. I felt young, they felt old. It was a good laugh.

About the WASL; What immediately stands out to me is that during testing, which can take an entire school day, start to finish, kids aren't learning. We're not allowed to instruct, and so it feels like a wasted day. Granted, the the kids are writing, they are getting practice, but it's definitely not the best use of a kid's life.

School is ultimately supposed to be for supporting student learning. It's for the kids. WASL is not for the kids. It's for the state. On days of WASL, school days, the students aren't learning, they're showing what they've learned. In this way, with such extensive time dedicated to the test, students aren't gaining much from this experience.

That's true of all testing though, students are not learning during testing, they're just showing what they know. So is assessment valuable?

Of course! Assessment is the ultimate teacher tool in deciding what needs to be taught, what students need to learn. From assessment we plan, and from planning we teach, and before, during and after teaching, we assess. It's the only thing that can accurately, and if done right objectively, guide good teaching.

So then, the WASL must be a great way for teachers to make decisions for their students! It's surely worth the extensive time we dedicate to it, because teachers can use it to make smart decisions about what to teach. We can get a TON of great information about our students that will ensure that they are being taught exactly what they need to learn!

Nope.

We teachers can't even look at the tests! We can't even know what's asked of the students, let alone see their responses. Heaven forbid that we, gasp, know what students wrote. In fact, after students write such brilliant stories as I'm sure that they did on the writing portion, we destroy their drafts, ensuring that teachers can, in fact, learn NOTHING from this test. Far from a tool to drive instruction, it is forbidden that the classroom teacher glean any information from the test.

But the scores! Surely they will give us information.

Nope again. We won't hear back about the scores until NEXT YEAR. Not only does that mean that student efforts on the WASL will be useless for improving their learning this year, but also that next years teacher will get no information from this extensive testing that is objectively relevant, as their results will be outdated!

Lets talk about the results. And of course I'm not talking about the results for students I'm asked to teach now, because I won't hear about them in time for it to matter. By the time I do, it will just be an afterthought. The results I get will be for kids I have never met. I will meet Billy, Writing 456, Math 345. That's it. I would love for someone to tell me how to make informed decisions based of that information.

No one will. It can't be done. All that number can give us is a reason to assess more, to figure out why it is that Billy has those scores, and what he needs to improve them. Couldn't I have learned that information from the test itself? Couldn't I have learned it with the group of students that took the test in my class? Why can't we see what they have written?

We can't because this test isn't about a student learning. It's about a state learning. Washington learns from this test. Billy doesn't. That is a mistake, and it's hypocritical. If you want students to learn, teach them. If you want to do a thorough assessment, and dedicate OVER A WEEK of class time to the cause, not to mention millions of dollars, let it be an assessment that drives teaching and learning.

There is a major flaw in how we use state testing. It needs to be improved, because spending days in the classroom without any learning happening is a huge waste of time and money, not to mention the cost in potential growth.

I'm not sure what the answer is to this problem, but hopefully it will include a LOT more teacher involvement so that students can actually benefit from their efforts, justifying the amount of time, energy and money that is spent on this assessment.

Until then, I guess I'll just smile, nod, and be sublimely proud of my students for their intelligence, ability, diligence and persistence as they submit themselves to such questionably justified scrutiny.

- Mr. Reni