BILL REQ. #:  S-3950.2 

Read first time 01/14/08.   Referred to Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education.

     AN ACT Relating to the reporting requirements for the Washington assessment of student learning; amending RCW 28A.655.090; and creating a new section.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that:
     (1) The citizens of Washington state have consistently expressed concern with the quality of education offered to the children of the state, and have demanded meaningful evaluation of schools, districts, and the educational system as a whole.
     (2) Assessment data being gathered through the Washington assessment of student learning is used both for individual evaluation of students and overall evaluation of the performance of schools and districts, obscuring the real meaning of values and trends in that data.
     (3) Efforts to date to improve the quality of education have been primarily in remediation of individual cases, incurring additional, recurring costs for such remediation but neither identification of underlying causes nor improvement of education delivered to all children.

Sec. 2   RCW 28A.655.090 and 1999 c 388 s 301 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) By September 10, 1998, and by September 10th each year thereafter, the superintendent of public instruction shall report to schools, school districts, and the legislature on the results of the Washington assessment of student learning and state-mandated norm-referenced standardized tests.
     (2) The reports shall include the assessment results by school and school district, and include changes over time. For the Washington assessment of student learning, results shall be reported as follows:
     (a) The percentage of students meeting the standards;
     (b) The percentage of students performing at each level of the assessment; and
     (c) A learning improvement index that shows changes in student performance within the different levels of student learning reported on the Washington assessment of student learning.
     (3) The reports shall contain data regarding the different characteristics of schools, such as poverty levels, percent of English as a second language students, dropout rates, attendance, percent of students in special education, and student mobility so that districts and schools can learn from the improvement efforts of other schools and districts with similar characteristics.
     (4) The reports shall contain student scores on mandated tests by comparable Washington schools of similar characteristics.
     (5) The reports shall contain information on public school choice options available to students, including vocational education.
     (6) The reports shall be posted on the superintendent of public instruction's internet web site.
     (7) To protect the privacy of students, the results of schools and districts ((that test fewer than ten students in a grade level shall not be reported)) shall be reported only in aggregation to the level of the individual school, which may be further subdivided by grade and by the criteria set forth in subsection (3) of this section. In addition, in order to ensure that results are reported accurately, the superintendent of public instruction shall maintain the confidentiality of statewide data files until the superintendent determines that the data are complete and accurate. The intent of this subsection is that the results of an assessment administered under this chapter shall not within reason be attributable to an individual student.
     (8) The superintendent of public instruction shall monitor the percentage and number of special education and limited English-proficient students exempted from taking the assessments by schools and school districts to ensure the exemptions are in compliance with exemption guidelines.