Anxiety is rising as high school sophomores prepare for the statewide tests they’ll have to pass to earn a diploma. This spring will be the first time the 10-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning will count as a graduation requirement.
Students, parents and teachers across the state are on edge, and some leaders have responded by calling for standards to be lowered. Fortunately, Gov. Christine Gregoire is not among them.
Gregoire last week unveiled her proposal to help students rise to this important challenge. Her plan would direct resources to students who need help to catch up and create sensible new alternatives for students to show they meet the graduation standards.
Most importantly, the governor is taking a strong stand for helping students clear the graduation bar rather than lowering it. In the competitive world of the 21st century, a high school diploma must mean more than it ever has before.
Much of the nervousness in classrooms and family rooms is based on previous WASL results that show most 10th-graders falling short of passing all three sections – reading, writing, and especially math. But such fears discount the fact that previous rounds of testing didn’t count toward graduation. With a diploma at stake, students are bound to take the test more seriously.
For students who don’t pass one or more sections this spring, Gregoire’s $38.5 million plan offers targeted help. It would provide money for districts to use on programs of their choosing to get students over the bar, and hold districts accountable for how they spend it. Summer school, before- or after-school remediation, Saturday school – districts would pick the programs they think will work best for their students, then report the options students pick and the results. Innovation would be encouraged; successful ideas would be shared across the state.
WASL data allows districts to target help where it’s needed. A team of Herald reporters dug into the numbers and found that boys are alarmingly behind girls in writing and reading. While that finding raises social and cultural questions that clearly must be addressed, it also shows that in most districts, boys will need the lion’s share of remediation.
Gregoire also proposes a new, one-step-at-a-time approach for kids who struggle on the math WASL. Students who don’t pass the math test this spring would be allowed to take short brush-up courses in certain subject areas, like algebra and geometry, then retake a “mini-WASL” on that subject. Success on each “mini-WASL” would count toward meeting the graduation standard.
Already, students will be allowed up to four retakes on each section of the WASL. Data from Massachusetts, which launched a similar graduation requirement three years ago, show that passing rates rise after each round of remediation and retakes. The first class to take the high-stakes test there had 68 percent pass the first time. After the first retake, 76 percent had passed; 81 percent passed after the second; 90 percent after the third and 95 percent after the fourth.
There’s absolutely no reason to think similar success won’t be achieved here. Washington’s graduation standards are reasonable, and its students are as capable as any in the nation. With the kind of targeted help the governor is proposing, they can clear the bar.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
