OLYMPIA – With high school sophomores staring down the first meaningful round of high-stakes graduation tests, both houses of the Legislature have approved ways for students to skirt the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
The package of WASL alternatives that state senators passed on a 33-10 vote late Friday was drawn from state schools superintendent Terry Bergeson’s recommendations. A companion measure passed the House Thursday night.
Both bills set up several options for graduation other than passing the WASL tests, including portfolios of work graded by experts and a comparison of grades with contemporaries who have passed the tests.
The WASL was introduced in 1997, but this year’s sophomores are the first high school class that must pass its three main sections to graduate. Only 47 percent of sophomores who took the exams last year met that requirement.
The Senate bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell, said the Legislature is now finalizing the education reform efforts it enacted 12 years ago.
“This is changing the system like we have never seen anything change it before; it is focusing on the students and their changing needs,” said McAuliffe, chairwoman of the Senate’s education committee.
Lawmakers began the 2006 legislative session with several options for altering the WASL standard, including a plan to abandon it as a graduation requirement.
As the session’s second half begins, two measures seem to have gained momentum – the alternatives suggested by Bergeson and an interim study on further alternatives for students to graduate.
The Senate passed the study bill 47-0 on Friday, mirroring action taken by the House a day earlier.
The study drew little discussion on Friday, but the WASL alternatives drew opposition from some senators, who said lawmakers were backing away from stricter education standards.
“The closer we get to actually having to hold kids to standards, the colder our feet are getting,” said Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood. “It isn’t that the kids are failing us. It’s that we are failing them.”
“If we set the bar low enough, everybody can walk over it. And with this, you’ve got multiple bars to walk over,” he added.
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