WASL Results and the Achievement Gap

Hello

I have been looking at the WASL results on the OSPI website. There is much good information there, once you figure out how to navigate the site. The first bit of analysis I did was on how African-American students at the 10 comprehensive high schools in Seattle did on the WASL. Now for better or for worse, this is one major way that schools will be judged on how they are doing in closing the achievement gap. I am a big believer in that there needs to be some sort of assessment to determine if students have actually mastered the skills and topics necessary to have a chance for success in the world. I am doubtful the WASL is the proper tool to do this assessing. I will show results for math, reading, writing, and met3 (meaning the student passed math, reading and writing).

School	Math
RB	36.2%
Ballard	34.2%
WS	30.8%
Garfield	30.1%
Roosevelt	27.8%
NH	13.8%
Ingraham	12.2%
Franklin	12.2%
Cleveland	11.1%
Sealth	10.6%

This is, of course, the most problematic subject. No one is doing a good job here. Just to toot RB's horn, we have raised our pass rate from 12% to 36.2% in the past two years. We are pleased by that, but still find our pass rate unacceptable. There seems to be a huge split here. I wonder why NH, Ingraham, Franklin, Cleveland and Sealth are lagging.

School	Reading
Roosevelt	82.1%
Garfield	76.5%
RB	69.5%
WS	66.7%
Franklin	65.3%
NH	64.3%
Ballard	64.1%
Cleveland	64.1%
Ingraham	47.6%
Sealth	46.7%

Even though, I am a math teacher, being able to read is the most important skill taught to students and it is good to see 8 of the 10 schools having reasonably high pass rates here. If you can't read, you doom yourself to a life of struggle. RB does 20 minutes a day of silent reading and while I admit I have trouble getting all the students to actually read, most of them do read and I think this has really helped our scores.

School	Writing
WS	83.3%
Garfield	81.3%
Roosevelt	81.1%
NH	75.9%
Ballard	73.7%
RB	73.3%
Cleveland	71.2%
Franklin	70.4%
Ingraham	57.1%
Sealth	46.7%

Writing is where the highest pass rates are. 8 of the 10 schools have rate over 70%. That is good news. We constantly are on our students about how to write a 5 paragraph essay. I even do it some in math. I show Stand and Deliver at the beginning of the year to try to inspire my students and then I have them write an essay about it. I know it isn't much, but at least it is something to help with the students writing.

School	Met3
Ballard	34.2%
RB	32.8%
WS	28.9%
Roosevelt	24.3%
Garfield	23.3%
Ingraham	20.5%
Sealth	18.6%
Cleveland	18.5%
NH	17.9%
Franklin	14.1%

Since the math pass rates are so low, the Met3 rates are going to be low also. This really paints a sad picture. Even though the State has decided to not make the Math WASL a requirement till 2013, the students need to meet an alternative option to graduate. They either have to do a collection of evidence or have to take more math and pass those classes with an above average grade. I have done the collection of evidence and it is very difficult. The easiest path to a diploma for students is to still pass the math WASL.