Delay in math testing passes
OLYMPIA – Lawmakers have voted to delay a requirement that students pass the math portion of Washington’s high-stakes test in order to graduate from high school, but the test’s future is still up in the air.
The state House on Tuesday passed an amended version of a Senate bill. Lawmakers from both chambers will now have to iron out the differences before the measure heads to Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Lawmakers say they’ve agreed to allow students in the classes of 2008 through 2011 to graduate without passing the math Washington Assessment of Student Learning exam, if those students take additional math courses.
The requirement to pass the science WASL in order to graduate would be delayed from the Class of 2010 to the Class of 2013.
The House version of the bill, which passed on an 81-17 vote, would call for end-of-course tests in math and science to replace the WASL, if it is determined that they do a better job of assessing students.
The Senate version only calls for a study of the end-of-course tests, but does not presume that they will replace the WASL.
Rep. Dave Quall, D-Mount Vernon and chairman of the House Education Committee, said end-of-course assessments are being used in several other states and that, as a former teacher, he thinks they’d be the best way to determine whether a student is mastering a subject.
“There’s not another example of a WASL-like test in the United States, so who’s to say that we came up with a specialized assessment system that’s spectacular?” Quall said, adding that end-of-course assessments are a more “common approach.”
Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell and chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Early Learning and K-12 Education, said the House bill goes too far in disregarding the WASL.
“We decided not to go to the end of the game before we began,” McAuliffe said. “A study is important.”
Gregoire said last week that she doesn’t like the idea of end-of-course exams replacing the math and science WASL tests, but would be willing to study it.