Senators' bill would delay WASL further

The WASL is getting flogged again.

On Monday, Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, plans to introduce a bill that would delay when students would be required to pass the reading and writing portions of the state's standardized exam to graduate.

Currently, this year's high-school seniors have to pass both sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) to earn a diploma. This bill would postpone that requirement to 2012.

The math section of the exam was delayed to 2013 during last year's legislative session.

Some have speculated that holding the hearing on the holiday commemorating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a nod to the civil-rights movement.

Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell and chairwoman of the K-12 Education Committee, co-sponsored the bill with senators Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver; Dan Swecker, R-Rochester; James Hargrove, D-Hoquiam; and Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle.

"Anything I can do to lessen the WASL's impact on kids, I will do," said Pridemore, who graduated from Fort Vancouver High in 1979. "The problems of kids are the greatest problems of adults to fix. Punishing children for those problems is immoral."

Despite the bill's prominent sponsors, McAuliffe isn't convinced it has broader appeal.

"Will the delay bill go through?" McAuliffe said. "I don't even know if I could get it out of committee."

During last year's session, Gov. Christine Gregoire said she would veto any further WASL delay.

Introducing the bill early in the session allows backers to build momentum against stated opposition by the governor.

Associate Superintendent Linda McGeachy of Vancouver Public Schools hasn't been a WASL proponent but hesitated to support the bill.

"The WASL has made us stand up and take notice, hold our feet to the fire, and that's all right," McGeachy said.

Thomas Shapley, assistant superintendent at the state schools office in Olympia, noted that 85 percent of the high-school seniors had passed the reading and writing requirements.

"Ten years ago, if you'd told people that 85 percent of the kids would have passed the testing requirement, they would have thought you were nuts," Shapley said. "We've come so far and had such great success. It would be a pity to turn back."

Meantime, local districts keep pushing seniors toward the finish line. In Vancouver, McGeachy was pleased to find out that the graduation rate doesn't appear to be dropping off, despite the reading and writing requirements this year.

"When I got the data last night, I thought, 'Is this right?' " McGeachy said. "I was thinking of the worse-case scenarios — 30 points less this year. So I was pleased. It has a lot to do with how our staff are doing business."