students breathe in, wait for WASL scores

Once again we near that magical moment in June when the sun burns away the slaggard clouds of spring, when rhododendrons burst into song, metaphorically speaking, and when a young student's fancy turns to thoughts of the WASL.

Between June 8th and June 15th, sophomores and other interested parties, freshfolks excepted, will learn their individual results in Reading, Writing, and Math. (Science, which from a student's perspective counts for nothing, won't come out until September.) Sure, the legislature might have passed a law or two making WASL success semi-optional, but who wants to retake the darn thing or take remedial classes or build a portfolio demonstrating achievement or some other ungodly alternative?

Bonus for interested teachers:

Also on June 8, the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction plans to publicly release preliminary statewide results showing how students in the classes of 2008 and 2009 performed on the reading, writing and math WASL tests. However, those statewide results won’t be finalized until late August.

What a strange year it's been for administrators and math teachers, who've had to convince students to try their best just in case their scores counted. As an English teacher, I didn't fret much: yanking Reading and Writing from the slate, when passage rates were already reaching 80% or higher, was never really an option for Governor Gregoire.

Added: Oh, and if you want to know what your options are if you didn't pass, here's the handy PDF chart.