About three classrooms full of Snohomish County students won’t graduate this spring because they failed the WASL.
Seventy-two seniors in 11 of the county’s school districts met every other requirement to receive a diploma except that of passing the state exam, according to the school districts.
That’s a fraction compared with the number of seniors who won’t graduate because they fell shy of academic credits.
Statewide, 91.4 percent of this year’s high school seniors have passed both the reading and writing portions of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or an approved alternative, according to results released Tuesday.
This year’s seniors are the first class that needs to meet the state’s new graduation requirements, which include the reading and writing portions of the WASL, but not math.
The seniors still have two more opportunities to make the grade: They can retake the WASL in August or submit this month a “collection of evidence,” an alternative way of satisfying the requirement.
State leaders say the results show remarkable progress over the past decade.
“Our students have done what many skeptics said couldn’t be done,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said. “We’ve raised our expectations of students, we’ve seen them step up to the challenge of meeting them, and now more Washington high school seniors are ready for the next step in life.”
“For the first time ever, we know that the students leaving our high schools have the reading and writing skills they need to succeed in their lives, no matter what paths they choose,” said Terry Bergeson, the state superintendent of public instruction, who released the results.
Statewide, 93.1 percent of seniors have passed the reading WASL while 2.5 percent have taken it and failed. Another 4.4 percent have not taken the exam.
Also statewide, 92.9 percent of seniors have passed the writing WASL while 2.6 percent have taken and failed the exam. Another 4.5 percent have not taken the test.
The percentages translate into 61,327 seniors passing the WASL and 5,772 who have not.
Seniors who have not taken the WASL represent a wide spectrum, including out-of-state transfers, recent immigrants still learning English and those who simply refuse to take it, said Nathan Olson, a state spokesman. For instance, some students who attend home-school resource centers operated by school districts often don’t take the exam, he said.
In Snohomish County, all but two of the 13 school districts were able to provide WASL results. Lakewood and Sultan school districts did not provide numbers Tuesday.
In Stanwood, the WASL requirement will keep four students from a high school diploma out of a class of 343. However, of those four, three students didn’t take the WASL. They are in a Running Start program where they take high school and college classes and will earn an associate degree. Not all colleges require high school diplomas.
Failing the WASL is not the biggest obstacle for many seniors who won’t graduate this spring.
In the Everett School District, 1,079 students make up the class of 2008. Of those, 13 of the 886 who have enough credits to graduate failed the WASL. Most are recent immigrants or in special education programs.
“These (statewide) numbers tell us the WASL isn’t as scary as we thought it was and the districts are working hard,” said Terry Edwards, Everett School District’s curriculum director. “There is a big problem getting some kids to graduation, and credits are a big concern for a lot of kids.”
In the Snohomish School District, four out of roughly 600 students in this year’s senior class won’t graduate because of the WASL, but about 80 seniors are falling shy on credits. Only one senior in the district won’t graduate because of both insufficient credits and failing WASL scores.
In a graduating class of 129 students at Granite Falls High School, only one student won’t receive a diploma because of the WASL alone. Five others are sweating out other requirements.
At least one of Lake Stevens High School’s 486 seniors won’t graduate with her class on Saturday because of failing WASL scores. The student immigrated to the United States two years ago and is learning English as a second language, said district spokeswoman Arlene Hulten.
Lindsay Salmeron, 17, a student at Lake Stevens High School, was one of the seniors who had never taken the WASL until this year. She had attended a private Christian school that did not give the WASL.
“I was very excited. It was the first time I had ever taken the WASL,” she said. “I enjoy writing and I enjoy reading, but at the same time I was nervous.”
Salmeron passed both exams.
Because of a mix-up with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, two other Lake Stevens seniors are still waiting to see if they passed the WASL or an alternative to the test.
On May 27, the state agency sent school districts a “yes/no file” that included the names of seniors who passed the WASL or an alternative or failed the WASL.
State education leaders said graduation rates appear to be staying steady if not improving, despite the WASL as a graduation requirement.
That would have been a different story if the Legislature had not postponed the math WASL as a graduation requirement until 2013.
Just 72 percent of seniors passed the math WASL, according to the numbers released Tuesday.
“It looks at this point that the WASL is not the deterrent we thought it would be,” said Warren Hopkins, a deputy superintendent in the Arlington School District. “If you counted math in there, it would be a whole different ball of wax.”
In Darrington, none of this year’s 52 seniors will be kept from graduating because of the WASL.
“Kids are very serious,” said Brett Galbraith, the Darrington High School counselor. “They are very intense. I think that accounts for the high percentage passing the reading and writing,”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
A WASL short of graduation
Here are the number of seniors at Snohomish County school districts who passed every graduation requirement except for the WASL, and the estimated headcount of each district’s senior classes.
Won’t graduate because of WASL failure | Class size
Arlington1300
Darrington052
Edmonds21,285
Everett131,079
Granite Falls1129
Lake Stevens* 1486
LakewoodNANA
Marysville5838
Monroe**6442
Mukilteo21971
Snohomish4600
Stanwood4343
SultanNANA
*Two Lake Stevens seniors are still waiting to find out if they passed the WASL and can graduate with their class.
**Correction, June 11, 2008: This article originally included an incorrect figure for the number of seniors in the Monroe School District who won’t graduate because they failed the WASL.
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