Student scores on WASL mixed

WASL scores released Friday show significant gains for 10th- graders, who must pass the test to graduate, but troubling declines in seventh-grade reading scores.

Only four of Spokane County’s 24 middle schools showed increases in the number of seventh-grade students meeting the standard for the reading portion of the WASL – as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning is generally called. Students took the test – the state’s answer to the federal No Child Left Behind law – before summer vacation.

The county’s other 20 schools posted seventh-grade reading scores that were an average of 10 percentage points lower than last year.

“We were surprised,” said Nancy Stowell, associate superintendent for teaching and learning for Spokane Public Schools. “Based on all the hard work we see going on in our middle schools, especially around teaching literacy, we really thought we’d see improvement.”

All six of Spokane’s city middle schools saw a dip in seventh-grade reading scores. The largest occurred at Sacajawea, where 16 percent fewer students met standard compared to 2005.

The biggest drop in reading performance was at Centennial Middle School in the West Valley School District. There, half of all seventh-graders passed the reading test, compared to 76 percent in 2005.

In fact, districts statewide posted declines in seventh-grade reading scores.

Western Washington newspapers have reported that the declines prompted several Snohomish County districts to send a letter raising questions about how the tests were scored. The districts also asked Terry Bergeson, state education superintendent, to delay Friday’s release of the results.

That request was denied. Bergeson said the state stands behind the accuracy of the test scores.

Locally, districts wanted to wait for more information and the chance to look at individual students’ answers on the test.

“I really don’t think that we can get to the point of asking questions until we get a chance to look at the disaggregated data,” said Spokane Superintendent Brian Benzel. “We’re definitely concerned and surprised that we didn’t anticipate this kind of a change and we’re certainly not trying to discount it. But I also don’t want to prematurely start trying to solve a problem that we haven’t clearly identified.”

In a press conference Friday, Bergeson called the drop in reading scores “anomalous.”

Bergeson said the drop is not because of a possible scoring error or technical problem with the test.

The WASL is scored by Pearson Educational Measurement, the same group that had problems nationally last year scoring the Scholastic Aptitude Test. After scoring errors were reported on the SAT, the state ordered an independent audit of Pearson’s scoring of the WASL and no issues were found.

“When I see this kind of drop, we check everything that we’ve done,” Bergeson said Friday during the WASL release. “If you look at the trend, we’re still slightly up from previous years (overall).”

Statewide, 61 percent of seventh-graders passed the reading portion of the test, down from nearly 70 percent in spring 2005. Writing scores for seventh-graders went up slightly, and math was down slightly.

The gains came with the 10th-grade scores. In Spokane, every district showed gains in 10th-grade reading, math and writing scores.

“We’re thrilled, and we know part of it is motivation,” said Deer Park Superintendent Mick Miller. “All of a sudden it meant something.”

Last year’s crop of 10th-graders are the first who must pass the WASL to graduate from high school.

“Until now we just didn’t know what that motivation would do,” Miller said. In Deer Park, 10th-grade writing scores went from 56 percent passing, to 91 percent.

Still, the number of 10th-grade students passing all three sections of the exam – the requirement for graduation – remains low statewide at 52 percent. An additional 28.8 percent passed two of three sections.

Of those who passed two of three, 92.3 percent didn’t pass the math portion. Math remains the focus of many districts, as they struggle to bring students to standard.

“We’re just coming off a study year for math adoption, and we’re starting working with our new math curriculum,” said Gene Sementi, assistant superintendent for instruction for the West Valley School District. Roughly 43 percent of West Valley’s 10th-graders passed the math portion. “We’re hoping that as we’ve aligned our curriculum more with the state standards, increases will follow.”

Science scores for Spokane County 10th-graders also remained low, with 35 percent meeting standard on average. Science will become a graduation requirement for this year’s 10th-graders.

The scores

Percentage of students meeting standard on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, compared to last year. Figures are rounded to the nearest tenth.