Last year, 48 percent of sophomores at Jackson High School passed all three sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL. The hundreds who didn’t can still graduate.
This year’s sophomores face far more pressure. This is the first year 10th-graders statewide must pass the WASL to earn their diplomas as seniors.
A number of factors, from WASL retakes to proposed alternatives, may help ease students’ nervousness as they await their scores, due out in June.
Some freshmen are nervous already. At Jackson High School, more than 90 percent of ninth graders opted to take the WASL this year, one year before they had to, said Peter Hendrickson, assessment specialist for the Everett School District.
“If you’re a ninth grader and have some anxiety about this, (you think:) ‘I can get this out of the way,’” Hendrickson said.
Taking the test early is one way to increase the chances of passing it before graduation, but there are other options.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s one or two or three sections they don’t meet standard on, they have choices,” Hendrickson said.
Students who don’t meet standard on the WASL can retake the test four times at no cost. The first retakes are Aug. 7-10.
The district is offering summer courses to help students at various levels of proficiency pass the test.
“We estimated how many students might be wanting to retake,” Hendrickson said. “We looked at the number of kids who passed last year and at the current enrollment.”
Last year, about 42 percent of 10th graders district-wide passed all three sections of the test.
As for summer school, students worried about the hit to their pocketbooks — $175 for a half-credit class — can breath a little easier knowing the state is offering districts money to help with tuition and course offerings.
The district will use money from the state to waive regular summer school tuition for students who fail the WASL.
The amount of money districts will get depends on how many students fail, and that is still unknown. The Everett School District could get about $61,00 this summer and about $358,000 in 2006-07, according to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
If students fail the test a second time, their options expand.
“As of a few weeks ago, they were polishing alternatives,” Hendrickson said. “They” refers to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, or OSPI.
This year, the state legislature passed a law outlining what those alternatives should include. OSPI must implement two of those alternatives in the 2006-07 school year.
The details have yet to be hammered down, but in blanket terms, students who fail the test could still graduate on the basis of:
• A combination of their grades in applicable courses and their highest score on the WASL.
“(For example): You and I are in the same math class and we’re both A minus students and there are other students who fit the same profile,” Hendrickson said. “If you meet standard on the (math portion of) the WASL and I do not, there’s enough evidence to say OK.”
• A collection of student work samples. The samples would be evaluated at the state level or under OSPI, Hendrickson said.
• A career and technical education collection of work samples.
“(For example) if you and I were in safety courier class and had to do first aid and an assessment of threats and pass a national competency exam for certification,” Hendrickson said, explaining one possible scenario for a vocational education alternative.
By June 1, OSPI must set up a process for students to appeal their WASL score. By Jan. 1, 2007, it must implement guidelines and appeal processes for waiving the test for students who transfer to a Washington school their junior or senior year, or have special, unavoidable circumstances.
Finally, OSPI is studying using existing math tests in languages other than English as an alternative assessment option.
Despite the alternatives, district officials are still anxiously focused on the upcoming test results.
“If I were to characterize it, I’d say we’re anxiously optimistic,” Hendrickson said. “We’ve worked very hard.”
The tests are rigorous, he added.
“But we have seen improvement every year,” he said. “It’s very encouraging.”
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