CONCRETE — Three Skagit County school districts will participate in a statewide pilot program to bring the state’s standardized test from pencil and paper to the computer.

Middle-schoolers in the Conway and Concrete school districts will participate in the computer version of the Measurement of Student Progress test in late spring. Sixth-graders at Edison Elementary in the Burlington-Edison School District will also take the computer test.

Statewide about 25 percent of schools will participate in the pilot program. The rest of the students will take the paper-and-pencil test.

Both the computer and the more traditional math and reading MSP will be half as long as last year’s Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL.

When the state superintendent changed the format last year, he also changed the test’s name to Measurement of Student Progress for grades three through eight, and High School Proficiency Exam for 10th graders.

Edison Elementary students should be familiar with taking tests on the computer, said Jeff Drayer, the Burlington-Edison district assistant superintendent and assessment director. Students in sixth through 10th grade already take the computerized Measurement of Academic Progress, or MAP test, several times a year.

“We have a good understanding of how to run a classroom of kids through a computerized test,” he said.

District officials wanted to hold a pilot program in Burlington to see how it would work, Drayer said.

While teachers have reservations about the computer test — many students have not yet learned how to use the software — students appear pleased with the change.

“It’s always intimidating to see the big white (test) book sitting in front of you,” said Concrete sixth-grader Hannah Kononen, 12. “It’s just right there. You need to get a good grade.”

But she doesn’t feel that same pressure in front of a computer.

“People thought it would be easier and funner to do on the computer,” she said. “It saves paper, millions of pounds of paper for the WASL and other state assessments.”

Shelby Meacham, 11, said there’s another bonus: Graders won’t have to try to interpret handwriting.

While many students seemed to like the shorter format, Randall Beacham, 12, at Concrete Elementary sees a downside.

“If you get one question wrong then it takes more points away,” he said.

With fewer questions, there are fewer opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge, Randall said.

State officials say a computer version of the test won’t save a lot of money. Testing costs the state a little more than $20 per child each year, said Chris Barron, a spokesman for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

But Concrete Superintendent Barbara Hawkings said it will be a big time saver. She said teachers now have to process testing booklets, store them, mail them and provide security for them when they are in the district’s possession.

“It takes people time that we don’t have, but we do it because the state says we will,” she said.

Hawkings said she signed up her district’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders because she wanted them to have a jump start at learning the format.

“Why not?” she said. “We have enough technology in our district to support it. The sooner the kids see it, the better.”

Barron said students without computers at home will still do well on the test.

“Basically the tests are multiple choice,” he said. “You don’t need a lot of (computer) proficiency to do these tests.”

The writing assessment will continue to be administered in paper and pencil, he said, because some students might not have the keyboarding skills required to finish the writing test on a computer.

The state has also moved the elementary test to later in the year. Teachers have long requested moving the testing window closer to the end of the year, Barron said, because it feels like the school year is over once the test is done.

Students will take the test in May instead of April.

State officials say they hope most elementary students can take the computer test by 2012, including science and writing assessments. High school pilot groups will be added next year.

Sarabeth Smith, a sixth-grade teacher at Concrete Elementary, said her class is forging ahead with the online tutorials at http://www.watesting.com/online.

The computer test gives students the options to do many of the same things they could do with paper-and-pencil tests: highlight, mark questions for review, underline words and cross out irrelevant information.

One downside, Smith said, is that students taking the computer test might not work out math problems as well as they did taking the test in the traditional format.

“In my past experience, when you put a kid in front of a computer, they forget they have paper and pencil,” she said.

• Kate Martin can be reached at 360-416-2145 or .

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