Questions and Answers about the WASL

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Questions and Answers about the WASL

• Edmonds School District
• Citizens Planning Committee
• December 4, 2006
• Presented by Nancy Katims
• Director of Assessment, Research, and Evaluation

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Question 1

• How are WASL results used ?

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WASL results are used for planning at several
levels

• For the needs of the individual child
• At the classroom level
• At the school level
• At the district level
• At the state level
• At the federal level

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For the individual child

• Teachers/principals/counselors look at WASL
  results for individual students in conjunction
  with other assessment data to plan for their
  needs, including possible placement in special
  programs.
• A Student Learning Plan is developed for each
  student who does not meet standard in one or more
  areas.

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At the classroom level

• Teachers look at the strengths and weak areas for
  their overall groups of students to plan for
  appropriate instruction and possible groupings.
• Teachers look at how their classes from last year
  performed to modify their instruction for this
  year.

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At the school level

• Teachers in the same grade level and/or
  department review WASL results to help them plan
  together for the needs of the students.
• Teachers across grade levels review school-level
  data to help align their curriculum.
• School leadership teams use school-level data to
  help evaluate progress on school goals.

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At the district level

• District leaders use district-level data to help
  evaluate progress on district goals.
• Program managers use WASL results to help
  evaluate program effectiveness (e.g., long-term
  effects of full-day kindergarten, high school
  summer prep programs).

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At the state level

• Washington State leaders use state-level results
  to help evaluate progress on state goals.
• Washington State leaders pinpoint struggling
  districts that would benefit from additional
  resources (e.g., Math Helping Corps).

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At the federal level

• WASL is used to help determine Adequate Yearly
  Progress (AYP) for schools, districts, and
  Washington State as part of the federal No Child
  Left Behind legislation.

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Question 2

• What can WASL results tell us about progress?
• What do WASL results tell us about forward
  momentum for a school or the district?
• What comparisons are valid from year to year?
• How can parents monitor their childs progress?

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One High School, Edmonds School District, and WA
State Percent of Grade 10 Students Meeting
Standard in Writing
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Edmonds School District Percent of Grade 4
Students Scoring in Each Level of Reading
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Comparison of 4th- to 5th-Grade Performance for
the Class of 2013
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Thinking about your childs WASL scores, you can
ask yourself

• How does the WASL score compare to how my child
  has performed on class work and other assessments
  in this area?
• Did my child perform at about where I expected?
  If not, what are some possible reasons?
• Looking at my childs WASL performance from year
  to year,
• Are the strengths similar?
• Is there consistency in performance level?

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Question 3

• What is the difference between norm-referenced
  tests and criterion-referenced tests?

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Assessments fall into two types

• Criterion-referenced
• --Student performance is compared against a
  standard.
• Norm-referenced
• --Student performance is compared against that
  of other students.

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Comparison

• WASL
• Criterion-referenced
• Compares student performance against the
  standards being taught
• Measures application of skills to new situations

• Traditional Achievement Test (e.g., ITBS)
• Norm-referenced
• Compares student performance to that of other
  students
• Measures attainment of basic skills

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The most important difference is . . .

• Because the WASL measures the attainment of
  standards being taught in school, the WASL
  reflects students learning.
• Because norm-referenced tests measure a wide
  variety of skills at different difficulty levels
  for ranking purposes, they do not tell us much
  about what students are learning.

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Question 4

• What is the relationship between a students raw
  score and scale score on the WASL, especially
  those very near the passing line?

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Raw Score to Scale Score Conversion Chart for
2006 Grade 6 Reading
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
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Question 5

• What are the key WASL results in terms of gender
  differences?

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Edmonds District Grade 10 Students by Gender
Percent Meeting Standard in Reading over Eight
Years
At every grade level, there has been some gender
gap in Reading, but over the years it has been
decreasing. At Grade 10 in 2006, it has almost
disappeared (to a 5 percentage point difference).
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Edmonds District Grade 10 Students by Gender
Percent Meeting Standard in Writing over Eight
Years
At every grade level, there has been a gender gap
in Writing, which has remained fairly consistent
over the years. At Grade 10 in 2006, however, it
diminished considerably (to an 8 percentage point
difference).
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Edmonds District Grade 10 Students by Gender
Percent Meeting Standard in Math and Science
over Years
There has been no gender gap in Math or Science
at any grade level over all years tested.
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Other Questions? Issues? Needs?