Shoreline WASL scores show less improvement since 2006

WASL scores at a glance

Scores on the spring 2008 Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL, were released to the public this week. See www.k12.wa.us and click on the School Report Card logo to find scores for your school.

Here is the percent of Shoreline School District students who passed the WASL in spring 2008 by grade level:

Third grade

Reading – 78.6 percent

Math – 77.5 percent

Fourth grade

Reading – 79.3 percent

Math – 66.8 percent

Writing – 72 percent

Fifth grade

Reading – 83.8 percent

Math – 72.4 percent

Sixth grade

Reading – 82.2 percent

Math – 66.9 percent

Seventh grade

Reading – 73.2 percent

Math – 64.9 percent

Writing – 72.3 percent

Eighth grade

Reading – 75.8 percent

Math – 61.5 percent

Tenth grade

Reading – 87.8 percent

Math – 63.9 percent

Writing – 90.8 percent

In the Shoreline School District, WASL scores are above the state average.

However, they’ve shown less improvement or dropped since 2006. The scores came out this week.

“I don’t have any explanations for that offhand,” said Jack Monpas-Huber, director of assessment, of the changes after 2006. “A lot of different factors play into test scores.”

Shoreline’s WASL reading scores improved dramatically from 1997 to 2006.

“2006 was a high point. There’s been less improvement since then,” Monpas-Huber said of the reading scores at a recent Shoreline School Board meeting.

For example, fourth grade reading scores climbed from 57 percent of students passing in 1997 to almost 91 percent in spring 2006, with a few dips and spikes along the way. The numbers have dropped since then, to 79 percent in 2008.

From 2006 to 2008, math scores declined overall – rising only in seventh grade, by three percentage points.

The biggest drop was in fourth grade math. In 2006, 75 percent of fourth graders passed the math section of the WASL. That rose slightly in 2007, then fell to 67 percent in 2008.

“That’s statewide,” Monpas-Huber told the board. “We’re looking into what happened.”

Also, the scores of Shoreline elementary students who took the test three years in a row declined in several grades as classes advanced.

For example, in 2006, 74 percent of fifth-graders passed the math section of the WASL. In 2007, 66 percent of the class, now sixth-graders, passed. In 2008, the class, now seventh-graders, fell to a 64 percent pass rate.

In 10th grade, math scores dropped slightly. In 2008, 63 percent of 10th-graders passed the math WASL, down from 64 percent in 2006.

“You need to interpret the results with caution,” Monpas-Huber told the board at the meeting. “The WASL is not vertically scaled across grade levels.”

The seventh-grade math WASL is harder for seventh-graders than the fourth- and 10th-grade math WASL is for students in those grades, he said.

“Have you seen the same trend in reading and writing?” board member Maren Norton asked.

Not off hand, Monpas-Huber replied.

In addition, he said the test changes from year to year, becoming more and less difficult, and the changing scores may reflect that.

As for writing, only fourth-, seventh- and 10th-graders take that section. Writing scores dropped in fourth and seventh grade from 2006 to 2008.

Fourth-grade scores fell from 74 percent of students passing in 2006 to 72 percent in 2008.

Fourth grade writing scores had climbed from 1997 to 2006, with a few dips on the way – in 1997, only 58 percent passed writing.

In seventh grade, almost 80 percent of students passed writing in 2006, dropping to 72 percent in 2008.

In 10th grade, scores rose in writing. In 2006, 88 percent of students passed. In 2008, about 90 percent of students passed.