The Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) was scheduled to become a requirement for high school graduation, but Randy Dorn, new chief of Washington state schools, this week announced plans to replace the WASL with a better, shorter, less expensive exam starting in 2010.

WASL has been criticized as too expensive and unfair to minority students. The proposed “Washington Comprehensive Assessment Program” would be shorter and quicker to take. Students in grades 3-8 would take the Measurements of Student Progress and high schoolers would take High School Proficiency Exam. The new tests would:

• Include more short response (such as fill-in-the-blank) answers for reading and math tests.
• Have fewer extended-response questions, from about 40 percent of the test questions now to no more than 25 percent.
• Eventually all be administered and graded via computer