Tacoma students met the 2008 WASL challenge

By Clare Jensen

Tacoma Weekly
cjensen@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: June 12, 2008

The class of 2008 has been anticipated as the first year the WASL “counts” for years. Fears for students as well as teachers that large numbers of seniors would be held back from exiting high school were prevalent, up until the beginning of the ’08 school year.

But after it is all said and done, most of the students in the state – and in Tacoma – will be able to move into their post high-school plans.

Ninety-one percent of Tacoma seniors met the requirements on the WASL to receive a diploma, at the very least. That’s on par with the state’s number, although Tacoma does lag behind in the number of students who also passed the math section of the test, putting the district at 60 percent of students earning their Certificates of Achievement in the shadow of the state’s 71 percent.

However, these preliminary results are not completely indicative of students actually graduating, according to school-district spokesperson Leanna Albrecht, but, she said “it’s a pretty good ballpark.”

The WASL is only one part of four requirements for 2008-and-beyond grads. Students also must earn 23 high-school credits, complete a culminating project and a high school- and-beyond plan.

According to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, lack of credits – not the WASL – would be the biggest reason why some 12th-graders may not graduate this spring.

“It’s more than likely that if a kid’s passed the WASL – they’re walking in graduation,” Albrecht said.

But even the numbers of students walking in the graduation ceremony isn’t a hard and fast number of the students who are actually moving on. Tacoma school principals have discretion to allow a student to participate in graduation ceremonies if they are on track to complete all the requirements by summer. If they don’t, they won’t receive their diploma and certificates, but that won’t be known for sure until the end of summer.

Regardless of how many seniors will actually graduate for real this year, the district is thrilled with the recently released WASL numbers.

“[The preliminary results] are certainly gratifying,” said Tacoma Schools Superintendent Art Jarvis. “We didn’t find a really large group of students being left behind.”

Out of the district’s 1,475 seniors, 135 were unable to earn an adequate assessment on the WASL.

And Jarvis said this year’s numbers are still expected to go up. Some students will be taking the test for the last time this summer, and will be included in the 2008 data. Some students’ collections of evidence (a state accepted WASL equivalent) are still waiting to be scored. Those changes are expected to have a slight impact on the preliminary numbers.

“We’re not at that 100 percent level yet,” Jarvis said, adding that the 91 percent graduation rate doesn’t account for the students who drop out of school before their senior year.

Jarvis noted another fear for students facing the new 2008 requirements was the possibility that there would be substantial variances in achievement across racial backgrounds.

Jarvis said he was pleased to see there were no major gaps.

“A lot of us were worried. This confirms that the high standards seem to be appropriate.”

Eighty-seven percent of American Indian and black students and 93 percent of white and Asian students in Tacoma met the WASL requirements to be eligible for a Certificate of Academic Achievement (CAA). All of those numbers are equal to or above the state’s figures.

Hispanic and Pacific Islander students fell three or four points below the state numbers with 81 and 82 percent respectively.

Graduation ceremonies for Tacoma High Schools were held June 2, 8, 10 and 11.

Tacoma students met the 2008 WASL challenge

By Clare Jensen

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