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State Agencies Confirm High Cost and Limited Value of WASL
OSPI admits to $1.17 billion price tag while State Board of Education calls math WASL flawed
by Bruce Smith
Molly O’Connor, Assessment Communications Manager at the state Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction confirmed recently that OSPI has spent $160 million since 1993 on direct costs of the WASL, such as test booklets, and $1.018 billion on the curriculum reform that underpins it. The latter figure reflects expenditures on standards development, teacher training, programmatic support for students, and improvements in technology such as software upgrades.
These figures do not include in-direct costs or those borne by local districts, eg: extra remediation classes for kids who flunk their WASLs, additional hires to administer WASL, or specialized teacher training designed to boost student scores. Estimates of in-direct costs range from the tens of millions of dollars upwards. According to Dr. Don Orlich, professor emeritus at WSU, WASL costs twenty-seven million dollars annually in teacher salaries alone due to classroom instructional time diverted to the administration of students’ WASLs.
Whether direct or in-direct, some of the expenses are staggering. Juanita Doyon, a former candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2004 and mother of four Bethel graduates, says that the state has spent forty million dollars over the past two years on WASL remediation classes.
Locally, an example of a WASL cost is reflected in Bethel School District’s recent announcement that it has three math coaches assisting junior high math teachers in an effort to enhance WASL math scores. Only half of Bethel’s 7th graders are currently passing their math WASL.
In addition, Bethel math teachers receive specialized training from the University of Washington’s Department of Education via a one million dollar grant from the US Department of Education. Lead by Dr. Elham Kazemi, the UW offers a multi-faceted team of experts during one or two-day workshops or as part of Bethel’s week-long Summer Institute program. Last August, over five-hundred Bethel teachers attended this well-respected event that offered courses on many subject besides math. In terms of costs, the DoE grant monies were supplemented by professional development funds garnered from the classroom reduction initiative I-728, according to Bethel superintendent, Tom Seigel.
During this same time, the Washington State Board of Education announced that they have received an independent analysis of their math WASL exams and the curriculum that the test purports to assess. The analysis was conducted by Strategic Teaching, an educational consulting firm based in Maryland, and their findings show significant deficiencies in the tests, curriculum and standards.
“I wouldn’t say they gave us a ‘D’,” said Warren Smith, vice-chair of the SBE and former member of the Bethel school board, ‘but it wasn’t an ‘A+’, either. It was valuable, though, because it candid and detailed. They told us we’re heavy in math concepts but not heavy at all, or lacking entirely, on the mechanics of math – how to do the problems.”
Reflecting the arguments of many, such as State Representative Jim McCune (R- 2nd LD), that WASL math is “too fuzzy,” Strategic Teaching stated in their report:
“There is insufficient emphasis on key mathematical content. Some key math should be taught earlier in a student’s schooling, and some key math is simply missing. Washington…does not ensure that…students learn the critical algorithms – math rules – that they need to succeed.”
— Bruce Smith
The Dispatch
2007-10-24
http://www.dispatchnews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=886&SectionID=41&SubSectionID=&S=1
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