WASL has students in suspense

Summer school looms on the horizon for high school sophomores who don’t pass all sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning in the spring.

The math section will likely be the biggest hurdle for the class of 2008, which must pass the high-stakes test to graduate. Students will receive several chances to pass, the first coming in August.

Last year in Spokane Public Schools, 55 percent of sophomores did not pass the math section of the WASL. In the Mead School District the math failure rate was 40 percent. The rate was 35 percent for Central Valley School District.

Washington’s top education official, Terry Bergeson, will be asking the Legislature for an additional $42 million to fund a summer school program to help students in 296 districts prepare for an August retake.

Cathy Richart, mother of a Shadle Park High School sophomore, said her daughter is “way stressed” about the WASL.

“She’s looking forward to summer. She’s excited about finally being able to work,” Richart said. “She’s a really motivated kid. I’m not sure the WASL is the greatest thing.”

The emphasis on getting students past this assessment test takes too much away from everything else, Richart said.

Her 15-year-old daughter, Christine, said she’s “terrified” about taking the test. She can pass everything but struggles with the reading section. In seventh grade she cried before and after the test.

“My mom tried to comfort me,” she said. “This year it’s going to get worse when we get closer. I just want it done and over with.”

If she misses passing the reading section by a close margin, she’ll likely skip summer school, should that be an option, the sophomore said.

Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Brian Benzel said details of how the $42 million would be allocated are not yet clear. There’s no guarantee the Legislature will even back the proposal.

“We’re excited that the state will be considering putting some resources into summer,” Benzel said. “This is a big shift in thinking. (In the past) we either paid to support some students, or students had to pay extra.”

School officials and students will know by June who didn’t pass the WASL. The information is being delivered earlier than last year, and it will help Spokane Public Schools focus on the areas that students need help the most, Benzel said.

The idea of extending formal instruction into summer appeals to educators, especially as they try to reach struggling students.

“Not everyone gets it done in 180 days,” Benzel said.

From time to time, Benzel said, a “what if” conversation breaks out among educators about year-round school. Crowded school systems sometimes turn to year-round schedules to accommodate more students by rotating them on multiple timetables.

“We have an agrarian school calendar that is over 100 years old, and the rest of society has sort of adapted to it,” Benzel said.

Schools in Japan and Germany have a different style of education based on their culture as well. The traditional long summer that’s developed in American schools has been shown in studies as having a negative impact on students, Benzel said.

“Students regress when they’re away from the structure of school for that length of time,” he said.

With a year-round calendar, school would still start at the same time, but Christmas and spring breaks would be longer, Benzel said.

“It takes a little more money to do that,” Benzel said. Budgets have been tight for most school districts.

For now, a year-round school calendar is still casual chat for most districts.

Benzel is mindful of the growing competition of other countries like India and China, where only the best students are educated.

“The American (school) system is the best,” Benzel said. “You have to look at what we accomplished in our country.”

The American system has been duplicated by many other countries as well. Now that system is halfway through a reform, he said.

“In the old days, if you didn’t get it, we didn’t care. You graduated with whatever you got,” Benzel said.

Those days are gone in the era of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“We’re trying to say ‘This is what you can do and where you can be, and we’re here to help you get there,’ ” Benzel said.