Area WASL scores don't add up

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima Valley students are getting worse at math.

At least they are according to the soon-to-be-replaced Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Results released Friday of the state's standardized exam -- called the WASL -- show that fewer 10th graders passed the math portion than the year before in all but one of the districts in the Yakima Valley -- Naches Valley.

Naches Valley's 10th-grade math scores went up from 40.5 percent to 44.0 percent.

More than 500,000 students in grades 3 through 8 and 10 took the WASL in the spring. Preliminary results -- released Friday by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction -- show ups and downs in reading and writing scores throughout the Valley's schools and grade-levels, with few drastic changes.

Math scores among 10th graders took a hit both here and statewide. In Washington, 10th-grade math passage rates dropped from 49.6 percent to 45.2 percent.

The Yakima Valley results followed a similar pattern.

"It's interesting how our district mirrors the state so closely," said Greg Day, the Yakima School District's academic assessment director. "What you see is really not much change."

The 2008-09 academic year was the last year for the WASL, the state's primary assessment from spring 1997 until this summer. The exam grew out of a 1993 law mandating higher learning standards.

The WASL started in 1997 for fourth-graders, followed in 1998 by grade 7 and grade 10 in 1999. Grades 3, 5, 6 and 8 were added in 2006.

In the Yakima School District -- the region's largest, with more than 14,700 students -- 10th-grade math scores dropped from 25.9 percent to 23.4 percent.

But, "If you look at the 10th grade (since the inception of the WASL) it's almost a flatline," Day said. "Our challenge area is math."

The math dips were often minor -- by a few percentage points. In small districts, that could be equal to two or three kids.

The math drops might reflect the difficulty of convincing kids to aim at a moving target, said Patty Schmella, curriculum director at Toppenish School District, where math passing rates dropped from 25.7 percent to 22.1 percent among 10th graders.

Last fall, the state legislature decided to postpone using the math portion of the WASL as a graduation requirement, as previously scheduled, the way reading is.

"When they did that, they just took all the air out of the balloon," Schmella said.

Teachers and district officials then had trouble motivating kids to try, Schmella said.

In Toppenish, a few students didn't even take the test or didn't finish it when they did.

Meanwhile, state officials have been adjusting math standards, Schmella said.

One of the bright spots of the Valley's WASL results was a spike in reading scores -- from 46.8 percent to 75.9 percent -- among 10th-graders in the Mt. Adams School District.

Superintendent Rick Foss called it a "cause to celebrate."

He attributes the jump to 90-minute reading blocks in eighth-grade, a reading curriculum that permeates all subjects, even math, and after-school tutoring.

"We're beginning to see the impact of our work in that area," Foss said.

"Plateauing or flat is probably a pretty good description," said Alan Burke, Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, in a news conference in Olympia on Friday.

And change is on its way again. Next spring, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn plans to replace the 12-year-old WASL with two shorter tests: the Measurements of Student Progress for grades three through eight and the High School Proficiency Exam.

"I have great concern about math and science," Dorn said during Friday's news conference. "Do we want high school students to graduate? Yes. Do we want to lower our standards? No."

But the assessment structure is slated to change.

"Now everybody is going to have to overhaul ... to adapt to the new tests," said Steve Myers, Toppenish superintendent.

And that's OK with Day, of the Yakima School District.

"We're in a transition phase," he said. "2010 forward is a totally new baseline. It's really a fresh start."

WASL, Day said, is "an acronym that became a four-letter word. It started building up negative connotations. I think changing it is good."

Meantime, some superintendents are trying to put WASL results into perspective, calling it only one measurement of student success out of many.

Kevin McKay, superintendent of the Zillah School District, hadn't even checked results by late Friday morning.

"We don't get too excited one way or another," McKay said.

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.