WASL scores out

Scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL, were released this week. See http://www.k12.wa.us/ and click on the School Report Card logo to find scores for your school and district.

Most Snohomish County incoming juniors have passed the reading and writing portions of the 10th-grade WASL but just over half have met state academic standards in math.

At most comprehensive high schools, the passing rates well exceeded 80 percent in reading and 90 percent in writing, the two subjects that students must pass to earn their diplomas.

“As we have said in the past, we don’t think the WASL is going to be a serious graduation barrier for students,” said Terry Edwards, a curriculum director for the Everett School District. “The greater barrier appears to be credits earned in high school.”

Local results largely mirrored statewide trends on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, a series of state exams given each year to thousands of students in elementary through high school.

Terry Bergeson, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, released statewide results at a news conference this morning .

Of incoming 11th graders in the class of 2010, 75.4 percent have fulfilled both the reading and writing graduation requirement, with 84.5 percent passing writing and 80 percent passing reading, she said.

Among this year’s incoming seniors, 88.7 percent have passed reading, 90.6 percent have passed writing and 86 percent have passed both.

“I am very pleased to see that students are continuing the momentum set last year by the historic class of 2008,” Bergeson said in a statement. “We know there’s still plenty of hard work ahead, but these results are very encouraging to me. We know students are more than capable of meeting these new graduation requirements, which are critical for success later in life.”

In Snohomish County, at three large comprehensive high schools — Edmonds-Woodway, Henry M. Jackson and Kamiak — the passing rate exceeded 90 percent in reading and writing.

Math scores on the WASL continued to lag. The statewide passing rate for last spring’s sophomores was 49.3 percent, about 1 percent less than a year ago. At eight of the county’s 19 comprehensive high schools, less than half the 10th graders passed the WASL.

Passing the math WASL was once slated to be a graduation requirement. The Legislature pulled the plug on the WASL math exam as a graduation requirement after it became clear thousands of students would not be able to pass the test. Instead, students who don’t pass the math WASL through test retakes must continue taking math classes through their senior year or pass an alternative to the math WASL.

This spring’s WASL testing in grades 3 through 8 showed mixed results, with fifth- and eighth-graders showing marked improvement in reading, math and science, while fourth- and seventh-graders slipped in reading and math, but improved in writing. Overall, elementary and secondary students improved in nine subject categories, were within 1 percent (plus or minus) in five and dropped in six.

Bergeson said there have been gradual gains in writing, breakthroughs in science but a stall in reading and math scores in elementary and middle schools.

Detailed statewide WASL score results as well as individual school and district results are available today at http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us. To view all supplemental materials for this press release, visit http://www.k12.wa.us/Communications/pressreleases2008/WASL2008ScoreRelease.aspx.