Last week, the state released the results of the 2006 Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL.
Statewide, only 45.1 percent of sophomores passed the reading, writing and math parts of the exam administered last spring. Those students, now juniors, must pass all three sections of the test to graduate. They’re the first class to face the requirement.
Below is a look at how Shoreline schools at all levels performed on the test.
High School
Sixty-five and a half percent of students at Shorecrest and Shorewood High Schools met standard in all three areas.
If the other 34.5 percent of students are to graduate, they must retake the test or complete alternatives as outlined by the state. The next retakes are this spring.
Sixty-four percent of students met standard in math, down from 65 percent last year.
Some school board members expressed concern about the math numbers at the Sept. 11 meeting where district staff shared WASL data.
“Are (students) going to have time to catch up?” asked board member Jim Leigh.
“We know math is an area we need to work on,” said Nina Potter, director of assessment and student information.
Math has been a challenge for schools statewide.
State Superintendent Terry Bergeson said at a press conference last week that schools have focused heavily on reading and writing. Now it’s time to focus on math, she said.
Students who are in Integrated 2, a math class, by their sophomore year have a greater chance of passing the WASL, Potter said. Students who aren’t at that level have a harder time.
It’s difficult to accelerate learning in math, said board member Debi Ehrlichman.
“If (students are) at Integrated 1, they’re at Integrated 1,” she said.
In reading, scores have risen at the two high schools for the past four years, from an average of 69 percent meeting standard in 2002 to 90 percent meeting standard in 2006.
Writing scores, which hovered around 73 percent of students passing from 2002 to 2005, with slight rises, jumped to 89 percent passing in 2006.
Middle School
Kellogg and Einstein Middle Schools saw their reading scores drop this year. On average, the two schools saw 79 percent of students pass reading in 2005 and 72 percent pass this year.
“Reading had a fairly significant drop across the state,” Potter said. “(The district) had the big drop (in) spring, but before that some nice increases.”
Reading scores rose from 58 percent of students meeting standard in 2002 to 79 percent passing in 2005.
The statewide drop this year in seventh grade scores has some districts questioning the scores’ validity.
Everett School District Superintendent Carol Whitehead last month wrote a letter with some of her Snohomish County colleagues asking the state to review the falling scores.
“This year’s WASL scores are troubling, but our own measurements of seventh-grade reading tell us that our students are improving,” Whitehead said. “Therefore, we will hold the course and expect to see this year’s strange statistical anomaly become just a blip on an upward trend over time.”
Superintendent Bergeson said the state reviewed the test and its scoring methods. “I’m very confident in the accuracy of what we’ve done,” she said.
Shoreline middle school writing scores jumped from 73 to 80 percent of students meeting standard from last year to this year.
Math dropped from 63 to 62 percent of students passing.
“The math trend is not what we like to see, but we’re getting a new curriculum for math,” Potter said.
The new middle school math curriculum was launched this fall.
Elementary School
In fourth grade, 91 percent of Shoreline students passed the reading section of the test, 74 percent passed writing and 75 percent passed math.
Reading scores have risen steadily for the past five years, from 66 percent meeting standard in 2001 to 91 percent meeting standard this year.
Writing scores stayed flat this year at 74 percent compared to last, but have generally risen over the last six years: Only 56 percent of fourth graders passed writing in 2000.
The percent of fourth graders passing the math section fell by 5 percent this year compared to 2005.
“(There was) a decrease this year but an increase the last five years before that,” Potter said. “You see the same dip in the state (scores).”
The percent of students passing math rose from 58 percent in 2000 to 80 percent in 2005.
Melissa Slager and Eric Stevick, reporters for The Herald in Everett, contributed to this report.
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