Professor's discovery offers key to passing critical tests.
What’s the best way to help students pass the annual tests that determine whether they can advance to the next grade and, ultimately, graduate from high school? There is no more pressing question for Washington teachers.
Steve Hirsch has the answer. He can predict with amazing accuracy which students are likely to fail the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) tests. Armed with that knowledge, teachers know which students need help, and what kind of help to give.
How WASL failure limits opportunities
Dr. Hirsch, a Washington State University education researcher, says, “If we can’t help students pass, college is out of the question, and high school may be, too.”
Public school students in grades three through eight, and grade ten, take one or more WASL tests every spring. The multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions cover writing, mathematics, reading, or science. Mathematics scores have been of particular concern. Only 58 percent of sophomores passed their math test last year, causing alarm not just among parents but also state lawmakers.
Dr. Hirsch, a clinical assistant professor at WSU Spokane, is a consultant with Spokane County’s East Valley School District. His view of what would help students came into focus when he looked into what amounts to an academic rear-view mirror.
The past reveals the future
Four years ago, he began looking at which fifth graders passed their reading WASL tests, and which ones failed. He compared those results to how those individual students fared on reading tests they had taken the previous spring. What he found confirmed in a scientific way what may have been teachers’ gut feelings about students’ chances of success. It also gave them improvement goals to shoot for.
When Dr. Hirsch successfully predicted which of the next year’s students would pass the reading assessment test, the East Valley school board asked him and East Valley academic specialist Kasey Pitts to come up with a similar means of predicting which students were at risk of failing the math WASL.
Key factors: calculation, application, and reading fluency
The recipe for WASL success involves a combination of ingredients, Dr. Hirsch says. “I was able to find three variables that, when combined, do a very, very good job of telling us if a child is on track: calculation, application, and reading fluency.”
In other words, students must be able to perform grade level calculations, determine what needs to be done with numbers presented in a word problem (Do I multiply or divide?), and read with sufficient fluency to understand the math problem.
Dr. Hirsch sets benchmarks for success, based on a math-screening test taken the previous spring.
“If the students are above those benchmarks on all three variables, 95 percent of them can pass the WASL,” he notes, adding that the numbers held true for third, fourth, and fifth graders. “This year, with the sixth grade, I was blown away by the results. If the students were above the benchmarks, 100 percent of them passed. If they were below all three benchmarks, not one of them passed.”
Teachers are keenly interested in the approach. If they know in September that only 30 percent of the students are on track to pass math, they know where to devote their attention.
The math test isn’t just about math
“The best way of helping some children pass the math test is to increase their reading skills,” Dr. Hirsch says. “You have to be a better reader to pass the math test than you have to be to pass the reading test. You have to know the meaning of words like ‘dividend.’”
Sigrid Brannan, principal of East Valley’s Trentwood Elementary, says Dr. Hirsch is “magnificent” at taking into consideration the needs of teachers, who have so many demands put upon their time. They appreciate the fact that, unlike other assessment tools, Dr. Hirsch’s tests are specific to the WASL. The screening tests take thirty minutes at most, and can be done by an entire class at the same time
Dr. Hirsch is devising math tests for eighth graders now, and plans to work all the way up through 10th grade. He also is busy spreading the word about the screening tests at conference workshops and in visits to local school districts.
Research an award-winner
Last year, his research was recognized with an award from the Washington Educational Research Association. Brannan predicts that his work will soon be even more widely recognized.
“He’s going to make a name for himself nationally,” she says. “WSU should be proud.”
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