Students take another try at WASL

Published 11:49 pm Monday, July 30, 2007

More than 850 students plan to retake the WASL in schools across Snohomish County early next month.

The number is down slightly from August 2006, when there were about 1,000 high school students countywide taking another crack at the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Much has changed from a year ago, however.

The Legislature delayed the math portion of the exam as a graduation requirement until 2013, while keeping the 10th-grade reading and writing tests intact.

Students failed math at a much higher rate than reading and writing.

Statewide, nearly 87 percent of next year’s seniors have already earned the WASL reading and writing scores they need to graduate. Some students have not yet taken the test and they are included in the overall passage rate.

The passage rate among those who have taken the tests tops 95 percent.

So far, 61.7 percent of next year’s seniors have met standards on the math WASL. Of those who have taken the test, 74.3 percent have passed.

Statewide, more than 11,300 students registered for retakes between Aug. 6 through 9.

Of those, about 7,000 were sophomores last spring and 4,000 were juniors.

Some students will take more than one exam and the total number of test booklets requested is more than 16,000.

Nearly 9,000 retake exams are for math, about 4,000 are for reading and 3,500 are for writing.

Many students will face the tests without formal preparation, while others have spent weeks in classes aimed at getting them over the WASL bar.

The Mukilteo School District has about 60 students in a five-week WASL summer school.

Fourteen are taking a class to help them with the reading and writing exams. Of those, 13 are learning English as a second language.

The remainder are taking math. About half of those were identified as “Level II” students, meaning they were close to passing the WASL in the spring.

Students showing up each day gave different reasons for being there.

Although they don’t need to pass the math WASL to graduate, some students said they want to pass so they can choose what math classes they take as a junior or senior. The Legislature is requiring students to continue taking the math WASL and math courses until they pass the test or graduate.

For Joey Dillon, a Mariner senior, the incentive was less about the WASL and more his transcript. He can pick up half an academic credit toward graduation through the summer school class.

“I’m just here for the credit,” he said.

Amber McCloud, a Mariner junior, said she is taking the class because she wants to ace the math WASL.

“I would rather pass by a lot than barely pass,” she said. “It’s really worth it in the end to know how to do this.”

Beshoy Hafzalle, a Mariner junior, said he needs to have a better grasp of math to be ready for college.

“It’s just for myself, just that I accomplish it,” he said. “I don’t like waking up early, but I have to do it to get what I want.”

Tami Nesting, who is the Mukilteo district’s summer school principal for secondary schools, said many students are coming because they were recruited by teachers and counselors.

“There was a lot of personalization,” she said.

School districts had different approaches and interest levels in WASL summer prep courses.

Arlington has one of the county’s biggest programs with 31 students in reading, 23 in writing and 49 in math.

Students typically take a two-hour class each day for a month. They can earn a quarter of an academic credit for taking the class and another quarter credit for passing the WASL.

Other districts have smaller programs.

The Edmonds School District has one-week WASL prep classes – one class in reading; the other in writing – that began Monday.

Edmonds decided to offer a shorter summer school this year close to the testing date because so many students take July vacations.

It chose not to offer a math class because it found many students needed more time to master the skills they need to pass that portion of the WASL, said Debbie Jakala, a school district spokeswoman.

“It was a philosophical decision,” Jakala said.

The Stanwood-Camano School District had just nine students sign up for a summer WASL class, all in math.

Likewise, Lake Stevens didn’t have enough students to offer a reading or writing course and had enrollment for just one math class with nine students.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.