Since Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn's January announcement of his plan to replace the WASL, there has been some confusion reported from students and families in regards to state testing in 2009.

For grades 3-8 and 10, nothing is changing this spring. It is federal law that all students in those grades participate in state testing.

For more information, please read "State Testing 2009."

Additionally, there has been a lot of buzz around the cancellation of optional 9th-grade WASL testing and the associated costs.

Beginning in 2006, OSPI allowed ninth graders the option of taking the high school WASL in math, reading, and writing. The intent was to let students who felt they could meet standard on the high school WASL take the tests a year early. The high school WASL is designed to measure proficiency in math, reading, writing, and science at the 10th-grade level.

"In the past, OSPI has been able to financially support optional testing for ninth graders because the number was fairly small," State Superintendent Randy Dorn said. "Now, the costs have grown significantly at the same time that an economic crisis is forcing our agency to cut optional programs and activities. This also supports moving forward with online testing because we would no longer have to print more than a million test booklets each year. "

Pre-registration for this spring's WASL testing ended January 13. After that date, OSPI determined that it would cost $477,000 in additional testing costs not provided for in the current state budget. OSPI estimates that 2009 testing in grades 3-8 and 10 will account for approximately 1.7 million WASL test booklets to be printed, not counting 100,000 booklets for ninth graders.

Ninth graders who have already registered to take the math, reading ,and/or writing WASL tests this spring will now take the new High School Proficiency Exam next school year.