Local students are wrapping up this week their exams in the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).

The WASL began in 1993 after educators, legislators and representatives of business and industry agreed that graduating high school students needed to meet certain defined levels of education and competency so that they would be prepared for the jobs of the 21st century.

“They wanted to raise the bar,” said Wahkiakum High School Principal Loren Davis.

The purpose of the WASL is to ensure students are meeting certain standards by graduation and to give school districts a basic idea of how well the standards are being taught. It holds school districts accountable for the education of students so a certain level will be produced across the state.

Students start taking portions of the WASL in the third grade. The state requires all sophomores to take it to assess their readiness for competency and graduation.

Students can choose to take the reading, writing and math sections of the test in their freshman year and are encouraged to do so if they feel they are ready, Davis said.

“Many of them can pass at least one or two portions of the WASL in their freshman year, so after that, they can just focus on the sections they are still struggling in.”

If a student doesn’t pass the WASL in the 10th grade, they are urged to try again in the summer. However, if a student doesn’t pass at that time, he or she will take the assessment again the following spring.

“The summer WASL window is more of an optional time where they (students) can focus on a section or two,” Davis said.

They are encouraged to take the test in the summer if they just missed passing the test by a few points, whereas students who failed by a wide margin are urged to wait until the spring session to gain more education.

This year, seniors are required to have passed the English and reading sessions in order to graduate. Students graduating in 2013 will also be required to pass the math and the science portions of the test.

Questions appearing on the WASL are created by Washington educators, who assisted in creating the test.

The test itself has evolved over time, Davis said.

Those writing the test went through multiple drafts before it became a graduation requirement so that the test would assess the necessary standards. Teachers in specialty areas looked over the test and produced sample questions in testing and pre-testing.

When the test first began, it was optional for everybody. Davis said when he was teaching in the middle school, teachers gave it to students so they could get used to taking standardized tests.

Students who have developmental issues aren’t exempt from taking the test. They are given tests equal to their educational levels. “A kid could be a junior and be taking a seventh grade WASL test because, developmentally, that is where they are. The state recognizes that and gives them credit for passing at their developmental level,” he said.

Opposition to the WASL is rare. Parents will sometimes have questions and the staff will do their best to answer those questions, but Davis said that no parent has refused to have their child take the test.

“We do occasionally have a student say, ‘I am just not going to take this WASL!’ and we say, ‘it’s required; you need to take the WASL.” Sometimes, they won’t do their very best, or they will just not come to school, he said. “There are other ways to pass the state standards without passing the WASL,” Davis said.

One of those options, Davis said, is to complete a “collection of evidence” or a COE, which is a compilation of work submitted by the student in different areas of the general learning expectations. Students put the work together in a notebook and send it to state teachers to grade. In this case, they are graded on the COE instead of the WASL and receive their diploma. This is also a good choice for students with severe test anxiety.

The test is given for eight days out of the school year. The summer session is only four days. The test is not timed; students can take as much time as they need. Most will finish by lunch, Davis said, but some need the duration of the day.

The WASL differs from the standardized California Test of Basic Skills/Iowa Test of Basic Skills (CTBS/ITBS) tests because it (the WASL) isn’t just a multiple choice, “fill in the bubble” type test. They didn’t test writing or reading comprehension the way the WASL does. The WASL takes the next step with boxes where students must prove how they found the answer.

Sometimes, credit will be given even if a wrong answer is found. “If they can show that they worked through the problem, they will get a three out of four, or a one out of two.” It depends on the question.

The test has been generally accepted. It is mandated by the state that students take it. “It’s out of our control,” Davis said. “Whether we like it or not, we are required to do it; it has become an accepted part of education.”

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The concept for the WASL began in 1993 when the state legislature required Washington public schools to mandate common learning factors for Kindergarten through high school sophomores. It was created so teachers could better prepare students for jobs of the 21st century.

The purpose of the WASL is to ensure students are meeting certain standards by graduation and to give school districts a basic idea of how well the standards are being taught. “They wanted to raise the bar,” said Wahkiakum High School Principal Loren Davis. It holds school districts accountable for the education of students so a certain level will be produced across the state.

Given annually to students in grades 4, 8 and 10,

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