SEATTLE (AP) - Students, parents and school officials who are still confused about what statewide tests are required for graduation in Washington state may get some clarification this week.

State education officials say they are going to release more information about the state's new assessment system on Thursday.

In January, state schools chief Randy Dorn announced the Washington Assessment of Student Learning would be replaced by two new state tests starting next school year.

Spokesman Chris Barron with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction says plans for the new tests are moving ahead despite the economic downturn.

Phone calls from confused parents have slowed down since the Legislature finished its work, but teachers continue to call with questions, Barron said.

"People are starting to think about next school year," he said, adding that teachers are eager for more details.

He didn't want to share many details in advance of Thursday's official announcement, but Barron did confirm that online testing will begin next year.

Dorn said earlier that online testing would be phased in over time and would not arrive at every school in one year. High school students will still need to pass an exam to graduate and the new tests will still be challenging, Dorn has said repeatedly.

The two tests have been tentatively called the "Measurements of Student Progress" for grades three through eight, and the "High School Proficiency Exams." Dorn noted that neither test has an easy name to turn into an acronym like the WASL and said that was intentional.

Education officials say the new tests will have more fill-in-the-blank questions, instead of multiple choice, and eventually most of the exams will be taken on computers.

Dorn campaigned for the superintendent's job on the promise that he would get rid of the WASL.

The WASL has been controversial since its inception nearly a decade ago, mostly because it is so difficult for some children to pass and the testing itself takes up so much class time.

Dorn has said he also thinks it takes too long for results to get to teachers and parents - the statewide results of the April 2009 WASL will be released next week and individual scores will go to parents in September.

In January, he estimated the new system would take about 2 1/2 days for grade school and middle school students instead of disrupting school schedules for as long as three weeks, including makeup exams. Dorn hopes to eventually shorten the high school exam to less than a week.

Washington high school students will have one more opportunity to take the WASL, in August. After that, there will still be statewide assessments, in part to meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law, but they will be called something else.