With last week’s WASL scores release came an update on the Class of 2010, most of whom took and passed the 10th Grade Reading and Writing WASLs in 2007-08. Those students who did not pass one or both tests retook the exams this year. And what a difference a year makes for some. What’s most encouraging is the large jump in passing percentages among certain subgroups — a 16-point gain for African-American, Latino and Native American students, and almost 28 points for Special Education students. Certainly many of the pass rates are nowhere near where we would like them to be, but at least progress is being made.
Let’s also take a look at the progress of the Class of 2011. So far, almost three-fourths of this class have passed both Reading and Writing WASLs, putting them on track to graduate next year (barring any credit deficencies). But how have they done over time? (I did a similar analysis on the Class of 2010 at this same time last year) To create the below chart, I used this year’s data along with WASL pass rates from 2002-03 (4th grade), 2003-04 (5th grade Science), 2005-06 (7th grade) and 2006-07 (8th grade Science). Admittedly, not all members of the Class of 2011 were in Washington and/or these grades at those times, but it’s the closest we can get to tracking the class as a whole.
The results are a bit troubling. Steady gains were made on the Reading and Writing WASLs, but pass rates from the Math and Science WASLs are not encouraging.
