Students aren’t the only ones confronting complex WASL questions these days.
Schools have faced their own conundrums with the high-profile Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
Here’s a sample:
Niki Desautels / The Herald
* If 400 sophomores need silence, where do 1,200 freshmen, juniors and seniors go without being distracting?
* Where do you put students needing extra time to test when regular classes resume?
* Where do you station students with learning disabilities and special testing accommodations, such as a scribe who will write the answers they dictate?
Answers vary from school to school and district to district.
In general, most high school juniors and seniors were allowed to come to school two hours late during the eight testing days to keep the campus quiet.
However, students from all grades show up at elementary and middle schools, which creates a space crunch.
High school WASL testing wrapped up Friday, while elementary and middle schools continue this week.
This year’s WASL has proved the biggest time-and-space challenge so far for schools.
At high schools, pressure was never greater for a quiet campus and secure testing environment because this year’s sophomores are the first who must pass the WASL to graduate.
Among younger children, WASL testing was expanded to include more grades to meet a new requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Reading, writing and math exams were traditionally given to fourth-, seventh- and 10th- graders. Reading and math tests were added this year in the third, fifth, sixth and eighth grades.
As a result, testing space is at a premium.
“Principal, assistant principal (offices), conference room, counselors’ spaces, library – you name it, we use it, especially as we try to accommodate small groups of special-needs students,” said Allen Sharples, curriculum director in the Lakewood School District.
The puzzle can get trickier at schools when regular classes kick in each day after morning testing. Specific times are set aside for testing, though students can take as long as they need.
At Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood, students requiring extra time were moved to the cafeteria and then to the library to make room for lunch.
Not all juniors and seniors got a chance to sleep in during testing weeks.
Many schools required or encouraged upperclassmen to come in if they needed to practice for college-preparatory tests or catch up on required culminating projects, research papers or regular assignments.
“It gives them an opportunity to work on what’s critical for them on their plates,” said Arlene Hulten, a spokeswoman for the Lake Stevens School District.
Meanwhile, high schools came up with a variety of activities to keep freshmen productive – or at least busy. Many had special assemblies on such topics as graduating on time and saying “no” to drugs and alcohol.
Monroe High School freshmen learned about Anne Frank and women’s issues around the globe.
At Everett’s Cascade High School, freshmen watched movies, picked up trash and heard from a counselor about how education can affect their future income.
“It seemed they were making up a lot of weird stuff to keep us occupied,” said Abbey Nastan, 14.
On Friday, Cascade freshmen got to choose from a variety of fun activities. They attempted yoga, played hackey sack, basketball and board games, held video-game tournaments, learned Chinese and painted imaginative pictures of “100 things to do with an alligator,” such as puddle jumping.
Home economics teacher Laurie Youngquist’s cooking class was among the biggest hits with its tantalizing aromas of pizza snacks and marshmallow puffs.
“Kids love to eat,” she said. “And it gave them a little taste of what my class is like.”
As he washed a muffin tin, Brayden Shumski, 15, said the enrichment classes were a nice break from the unusual quiet and boredom of WASL week.
“Doing something new every now and then is fun,” he said.
Edmonds School District was among the few that kept regular class schedules at its high schools. Sophomores were separated into larger rooms for testing, allowing others to continue with business as usual.
In the Arlington School District, freshmen took practice WASL tests on the same schedule as sophomores to prepare for next year.
With upperclassmen working independently on graduation requirements, the fewer students on campus “does make the testing environment calmer and perhaps a little special,” said Warren Hopkins, Arlington’s deputy superintendent.
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