Though the new state assessment tests are set for the spring, local educators will need to start thinking about it this fall as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning is phased out.

More details will be released to local school districts in October, according to Tahoma School District officials, who are right now thinking about many things the new test brings including the technology component that will eventually require students to take the test online.

At this point, the most important point Tahoma officials want to put out there is “that we won’t really do anything differently in the classroom because our curriculum is intended to reflect the state Essential Academic Learning Requirements, which is what is being tested on the WASL and its replacement,” according to district spokesman Kevin Patterson.

Bob Isenberg, director of assessment for the Kent School District, said the new tests shouldn’t impact instruction either “because people are teaching toward the same learning targets.”

Still, the changes from the WASL are significant, and it’s something the districts will have to take into account when planning for the tests in the spring.

First, there will be two different tests — the Measurement of Student Progress for students in third through eighth grade and second the High School Proficiency Exam, which members of the class of 2013 will be the first expected to pass all components of the exam.

Another significant change is the tests will not be as time consuming as the WASL.

“The main difference is that they’re both shorter, have a higher percentage of multiple choice questions, have far fewer extended response items where students have to explain their thinking and because they’re shorter the results will be impacted,” Isenberg said. “You’ll probably see a little more jumping around in scores.”

Isenberg added that another potential result of having fewer questions and more multiple choice questions which “may cause some problems in interpretation.”

“The test is measuring for the same targets, it’s just in a modified form,” he said. “It just happens that they’re using a different vehicle to test you now. The other problem is that with less items asking the students to explain their thinking there might be a temptation to do less questions in class explaining the thinking.”

Isenberg, however, has confidence that Kent teachers will know they need to help their students learn how to explain their thinking even if the assessment doesn’t ask for that at the same level as the WASL.

Previously with the WASL, each test would take two days, but “now except for the writing in grades three through eight they are all one day and lasting about 80 minutes.”

“You want to have a fair test that provides a fair sampling, but not so long that it becomes a test of stamina rather than a test of skill,” Isenberg said. “The other problem is that it was a huge issue with the public and educators that the test seemed to consume a huge chunk of the school year. It was in April, but it was all-consuming.”

This year the testing dates have also changed.

According to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Web site, www.k12.wa.us, the HSPE tests will be from March 18, which includes reading and writing, then math April 13 and science April 15.

Testing dates for the MSP will be May 12-28 for paper and pencil testing, while online testing will be offered from May 3 through June 4.

“The longer testing window for online is to ensure schools have enough time to rotate students through computer stations or labs,” according to the OSPI Web site.

OSPI expects about 25 percent of the states sixth through eighth graders to take the reading and math portions of the MSP online.

“Since Kent is one to one in seventh an eighth grade (with computers) … we’ll be looking at (online testing) more closely once we get more details,” Isenberg said. “It’s still in the very early development. There’s questions of how do kids show their work, for instance, if they’re doing online testing in math.”

Isenberg said the tests allow educators to assess if students are meeting the goal of leaving “school with a high level of learning.”

“It does have high stakes to it, especially for high schoolers, but the test results are shadows of reality,” he said. “We hope that teachers realize that their goal is to have kids learn to high standards, but that the test is an indicator.”