The WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) starts Monday (March 16) for high schoolers, and Renton schools are undergoing their yearly preparations. Teachers and students are sharpening their pencils and retraining themselves how to best fill in all those bubbles and write those essays.

“We’re putting in some work this year, with delayed starts on Fridays as well as bringing in school-improvement facilitators from the state,” says Randy Matheson, Renton School District spokesperson. “I think we’re going to see some improvement on our WASL scores.”

District teachers have also been increasing their understanding of the state’s biggest test by scoring and writing questions for the WASL.

As always, district staff hopes to improve upon last year’s scores.

Some groups of students recorded huge increases last spring while scores of other groups dropped.

Of most concern last year were the district’s 11 of 12 Title I schools that did not meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standard set by No Child Left Behind.

Schools with a certain ratio of low-income students receive Title I status by the federal government, which means they receive federal funding. Washington Title I schools must improve WASL scores each year, or make Adequate Yearly Progress.

Better understanding of the WASL and its required explanatory answers should help the district bring up those scores, Matheson says.

Because although Randy Dorn, the new state superintendent of public instruction, has said he wants to replace the WASL in spring 2010, for now the WASL is here to stay.

“For this coming year nothing changes,” Matheson says. “It’s still the WASL, it’s still the same test. Students still need to pass it to graduate.”

The class of 2008 was the first class required to pass the reading and writing sections of the WASL to graduate, and starting with the class of 2013, students will be required to pass the math section or two end-of-course exams. The math WASL is scheduled to end in 2014.

WASL SCHEDULE

March 16-19: Reading and writing for 10th graders and high school students who need to complete re-takes.

April 13-14: Math for high school students

April 20-21: Science for high school students

April 13-May 1: Reading, writing, math and science for students in grades three through eight.

<WHAT'S THE WASL?

• The WASL is the state’s biggest education test. It’s used by Washington state to determine if students are meeting state and federal education standards. The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires yearly math and reading tests for third through eighth graders. Annual science tests must also be given to students in an elementary, middle and high school grade.

Students in grades three through eight and 10 take the reading and math WASL, grades four, seven and 10 writing, and grades five, eight and 10 science.

• For more information, visit the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Web site.