BILL REQ. #:  H-1185.1 

Read first time 02/02/2005.   Referred to Committee on Education.

     AN ACT Relating to educational assessments; amending RCW 28A.230.190, 28A.230.193, 28A.230.195, 28A.230.230, 28A.230.250, and 28A.655.070; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that assessments provide teachers, parents, the community, and policymakers with valuable information that can be used for a variety of purposes. Assessments that are nationally normed help teachers, parents, and the community know how well their children are learning in comparison to other children across the country and in neighboring schools and school districts. These norm-referenced assessments are well understood by parents and have been accepted for generations as one of the best ways to measure the achievement and progress of individual students. Criterion-referenced assessments, including the Washington assessment of student learning, provide teachers, parents, and the community with information on how well students are learning to state standards. While criterion-referenced assessments provide information on how well students are learning compared to their local and state peers, they do not provide information on how well students are learning compared to their peers in neighboring states or across the country. The legislature finds that, while norm and criterion-referenced assessments are useful, the most valuable assessments of all are diagnostic assessments that provide teachers and parents with the information they need to support and enhance the learning of individual students. The legislature further finds that the state's assessment system needs to be designed to give teachers, parents, and the community information in all those dimensions.
     Therefore, the legislature intends to ensure that the state's assessment system is designed to provide information on how well Washington's students are learning compared to their peers in neighboring schools and across the state and country. The legislature further intends that the assessment system include diagnostic assessments and other instruments that help teachers and parents discover the specific grade level expectations that students need additional support to learn.

Sec. 2   RCW 28A.230.190 and 1999 c 373 s 201 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) School districts shall assess students for second grade reading accuracy and fluency skills starting in the 1998-99 school year as provided in RCW 28A.300.320.
     (2) The superintendent of public instruction shall prepare and conduct, with the assistance of school districts, a nationally norm-referenced standardized achievement test ((to)) that, at the option of school districts, may be given annually to all pupils in grade three. The test shall assess students' basic skills in reading and mathematics. Results of such tests and relevant student, school, and district characteristics shall be compiled annually by the superintendent of public instruction, who shall make those results available annually to the public, to the legislature, to all local school districts, and subsequently to parents of those children tested. The results shall allow parents to ascertain the achievement levels of their children as compared with the other students within the district, the state, and the nation.

Sec. 3   RCW 28A.230.193 and 1999 c 373 s 301 are each amended to read as follows:
     The superintendent of public instruction shall prepare and conduct, with the assistance of school districts, a nationally norm-referenced standardized achievement test ((to)) that, at the option of school districts, may be given annually to all pupils in grade six. The test shall assess students' basic skills in reading/language arts and mathematics. Results of such tests and relevant student, school, and district characteristics shall be compiled by the superintendent of public instruction, who shall make those results available annually to the public, to the legislature, to all local school districts, and subsequently to parents of those children tested. The results shall allow parents to ascertain the achievement levels of their children as compared with the other students within the district, the state, and the nation.

Sec. 4   RCW 28A.230.195 and 1999 c 373 s 603 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) If students' scores on the test or assessments under RCW 28A.230.190, 28A.230.230, and ((28A.630.885)) 28A.655.070 indicate that students need help in identified areas, the school district shall evaluate its instructional practices and make appropriate adjustments.
     (2) Each school district shall notify the parents of each student of their child's performance on the test and assessments conducted under this chapter.

Sec. 5   RCW 28A.230.230 and 1999 c 373 s 401 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The superintendent of public instruction shall prepare ((and conduct, with the assistance of school districts, an)) for the optional use by school districts, a nationally norm-referenced annual assessment of ((all)) students in the ninth grade. The purposes of the assessment are to assist students, parents, and teachers in the planning and selection of appropriate high school courses for students and to provide information about students' current academic proficiencies both in the basic skills of reading/language arts and mathematics, and in the reasoning and thinking skills essential for successful entry into those courses required for high school graduation. The assessment shall also include the collection of information about students' interests and plans for high school and beyond and shall include the collection of other related student and school information. The superintendent of public instruction shall make the results of the assessment and relevant student, school, and district characteristics available annually to the public, to the legislature, and to all school districts, which shall in turn make them available to students, parents, and teachers in a timely fashion.
     (2) Upon request, the superintendent of public instruction shall make available to requesting school districts the inventory used to collect information about students' interests and plans for high school and beyond for use by students in the eighth grade. To the extent funds are appropriated, the superintendent shall provide the inventory, tabulation services, and reporting at no cost or at reduced cost to school districts.

Sec. 6   RCW 28A.230.250 and 1999 c 373 s 602 are each amended to read as follows:
     The superintendent of public instruction shall coordinate both the procedures and the content of the tests and assessments required by the state under this chapter and RCW 28A.655.070 to maximize the value of the information provided to students as they progress and to teachers and parents about students' talents, interests, and academic needs or deficiencies so that appropriate programs can be provided to enhance the likelihood of students' success both in school and beyond.

Sec. 7   RCW 28A.655.070 and 2004 c 19 s 204 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The superintendent of public instruction shall develop essential academic learning requirements that identify the knowledge and skills all public school students need to know and be able to do based on the student learning goals in RCW 28A.150.210, develop student assessments, and implement the accountability recommendations and requests regarding assistance, rewards, and recognition of the academic achievement and accountability commission.
     (2) The superintendent of public instruction shall:
     (a) Periodically revise the essential academic learning requirements, as needed, based on the student learning goals in RCW 28A.150.210. Goals one and two shall be considered primary. To the maximum extent possible, the superintendent shall integrate goal four and the knowledge and skill areas in the other goals in the essential academic learning requirements; and
     (b) Review and prioritize the essential academic learning requirements and identify, with clear and concise descriptions, the grade level content expectations to be assessed on the Washington assessment of student learning and used for state or federal accountability purposes. The review, prioritization, and identification shall result in more focus and targeting with an emphasis on depth over breadth in the number of grade level content expectations assessed at each grade level. Grade level content expectations shall be articulated over the grades as a sequence of expectations and performances that are logical, build with increasing depth after foundational knowledge and skills are acquired, and reflect, where appropriate, the sequential nature of the discipline. The office of the superintendent of public instruction, within seven working days, shall post on its web site any grade level content expectations provided to an assessment vendor for use in constructing the Washington assessment of student learning.
     (3) In consultation with the academic achievement and accountability commission, the superintendent of public instruction shall maintain and continue to develop and revise a statewide academic assessment system in the content areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and science for use in the elementary, middle, and high school years designed to determine if each student has mastered the essential academic learning requirements identified in subsection (1) of this section. School districts shall administer the assessments under guidelines adopted by the superintendent of public instruction. The academic assessment system shall include a variety of assessment methods, including criterion-referenced and performance-based measures. Beginning with the 2006-07 school year, the results of at least one criterion-referenced assessment in reading and in mathematics for elementary school, middle school, and high school shall be available in a format that provides nationally norm-referenced results in addition to other results. The norm-referenced results shall be annually reported to parents, the community, the office of the superintendent of public instruction, and the public at the same time and in the same manner as the criterion-referenced results of the assessment.
     (4) If the superintendent proposes any modification to the essential academic learning requirements or the statewide assessments, then the superintendent shall, upon request, provide opportunities for the education committees of the house of representatives and the senate to review the assessments and proposed modifications to the essential academic learning requirements before the modifications are adopted.
     (5)(a) The assessment system shall be designed so that the results under the assessment system are used by educators as tools to evaluate instructional practices, and to initiate appropriate educational support for students who have not mastered the essential academic learning requirements at the appropriate periods in the student's educational development. Contracts with assessment vendors who provide criterion-referenced assessments under this chapter shall include a provision that requires the vendor to provide, in conjunction with the assessment, diagnostic assessments or other instruments that are inexpensive and quickly administered, easily scored by a teacher or through technology, and designed to provide teachers with enough information to determine student-specific performance on the grade level expectations measured in the assessment.
     (b) Assessments measuring the essential academic learning requirements in the content area of science shall be available for mandatory use in middle schools and high schools by the 2003-04 school year and for mandatory use in elementary schools by the 2004-05 school year unless the legislature takes action to delay or prevent implementation of the assessment.
     (6) By September 2007, the results for reading and mathematics shall be reported in a format that will allow parents and teachers to determine the academic gain a student has acquired in those content areas from one school year to the next.
     (7) To assist parents and teachers in their efforts to provide educational support to individual students, the superintendent of public instruction shall provide as much individual student performance information as possible within the constraints of the assessment system's item bank. The superintendent shall also provide to school districts:
     (a) Information on classroom-based and other assessments that may provide additional achievement information for individual students; and
     (b) A collection of diagnostic tools that educators may use to evaluate the academic status of individual students. The tools shall be designed to measure student-specific performance on grade level expectations, and be inexpensive, easily administered, and quickly and easily scored by the teacher or through technology, with results provided in a format that may be easily shared with parents and students. To the extent that funding is available for this purpose, diagnostic tools that help teachers determine student-specific performance on grade level expectations in mathematics for students in the fourth, seventh, and tenth grades shall be available by September 1, 2006.
     (8) To the maximum extent possible, the superintendent shall integrate knowledge and skill areas in development of the assessments.
     (9) Assessments for goals three and four of RCW 28A.150.210 shall be integrated in the essential academic learning requirements and assessments for goals one and two.
     (10) The superintendent shall develop assessments that are directly related to the essential academic learning requirements, and are not biased toward persons with different learning styles, racial or ethnic backgrounds, or on the basis of gender.
     (11) The superintendent shall consider methods to address the unique needs of special education students when developing the assessments under this section.
     (12) The superintendent shall consider methods to address the unique needs of highly capable students when developing the assessments under this section.
     (13) The superintendent shall post on the superintendent's web site lists of resources and model assessments in social studies, the arts, and health and fitness.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   This act takes effect August 1, 2005.