Few students will miss diploma because of WASL scores

Published 11:53 am Monday, March 3, 2008

Most seniors in the Edmonds School District will not be held back from a diploma this spring because they failed to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL.

This year’s seniors are the first class that must pass the 10th-grade reading and writing exams to graduate and results from the test, taken this past spring, were released last week.

In the district, 90.3 percent of this year’s seniors passed the reading WASL and 90.6 percent passed writing. Nearly 88 percent passed both subjects and are on track to graduate.

Statewide, 83.6 percent of the class of 2008 has passed both exams. The passing rate among seniors in math, which was delayed as a graduation requirement until 2013, is 63 percent.

Seniors who haven’t passed the reading and writing sections of the test can turn in a “collection of evidence” as an alternate assessment. The evidence is pieces of work that are similar to what the WASL tests.

The scores of 10th-graders who took the test in spring are a mixed bag and vary from school to school.

Edmonds-Woodway High School

Edmonds-Woodway 10th-graders scored above state averages: 91.7 percent passed the reading portion of the test, 89.7 percent passed writing and 63.9 percent passed math.

On average in the state, 80.6 percent of 10th-grade students passed reading, 83.6 percent passed writing and 50.2 percent passed math.

However, scores are down from 2005-06. The number of Edmonds-Woodway students who passed reading fell about 3 percent — from 94.1 percent that year. Math scores saw a slight drop from the year before and writing dropped by about 3 percent.

“It’s hard to make gains when you’re above 90 percent,” said Michelle Trifunovic, principal. She said the last steps of achieving a goal are always the hardest.

The next step is to fine tune by looking in detail at what parts of the tests students did or didn’t do well in and tailor instruction around that, she said.

In reading and writing, there are very few students who haven’t met standard, Trifunovic said. The school will offer after-school help for those students, funded with state money that schools get for WASL remediation. Students in those after-school classes could work on a collection of evidence that serves as an alternate assessment to the WASL, Trifunovic said.

Mountlake Terrace High School

At Terrace, 48.3 percent of students passed the math WASL, which is less than the state average. Reading and writing were above the state average, with 82.7 percent and 88.5 percent of 10th-graders passing the two subjects respectively.

Math scores fell from 2005-06, when 56.3 percent of students passed the test.

“I’m not sure what to make of math – I’m not sure anyone is at this point,” said principal Greg Schwab.

The Legislature debated whether to postpone the math requirement while students were taking the test, and more students than he can count asked him about that, he said.

“Kids talked to me and said, ‘Is this gonna count? Do I really have to pass math?’” said Schwab. “The message they were getting is: It’s not gonna be a graduation requirement.”

That might have influenced the numbers, he said, but the school will focus on math this year.

“We are making a more concerted effort to find ways to support math across the curriculum,” Schwab said.

Two years ago, the number of students passing reading jumped by about 25 percent after the school made a concerted effort to teach reading across the curriculum. Schwab hopes that a similar effort will yield a similar result.

Lynnwood High School

Lynnwood 10th-graders scored near the state average in math, with 50.1 percent of 10th-graders passing. Reading and writing were above the state average: 84.2 percent of students passed reading and 88.5 percent passed writing.

Fewer Lynnwood 10th-graders passed in reading and math compared to 2005-06. Math took a roughly 5 percent drop and reading dropped by 2 percent.

However, 8 percent more students passed writing compared to the year before.

David Golden, Lynnwood principal, said he was pleased with most of the scores considering the school’s demographics.

As of May 2007, 32.7 percent qualified for free and reduced lunch and almost 11 percent were transitional bilingual.

“When our school is performing on a par with most of the other schools around the state, that’s a cause for celebration,” Golden said.

He’s not sure what happened with the reading scores, he said, but reading scores generally dropped slightly across the state, he said.

The school also is working on math, a statewide problem as well, and will offer extra help for students in all areas, Golden said.

This year, the district will look at new math curricula and train teachers on “best practices.”

Meadowdale

Meadowdale 10th-graders scored far above the state average in math, with 62.3 percent of students passing. Reading and writing also were above average: 86.9 percent of students passed the reading and 93.7 percent of students passed the writing part of the test.

About 7 percent more students passed the math test in 2006-07 than the year before, and writing saw a 3 percent gain as well, though reading dropped by about 3 percent of students passing.

“Overall we’re pleased, especially with the math increase — teachers worked hard to improve those scores,” said principal Dale Cote, adding that he was pleased with writing too.

The school is trying to figure out what happened with reading, which had climbed by 9 percent of students passing the year before, and this year bumped down.

Eric Stevick and Jasa Santos, reporters for the Herald, contributed to this report.