Mike Wagner might not really enjoy the “special” math class he’s taking to help him meet standards on the Washington Assessment State Learning test, but the high school junior is certain it will help him pass the test and graduate.

The math class, called a math module, is a remedial math course offered at Mount Si High School to help the 36 percent of students who missed meeting standards on the math portion of the WASL. This is one of several ways to improve student scores on the WASL, a series of tests that help make sure students learn basic skills and knowledge.

A voluntary course, the math module is recommended to students by the school.

“We’re encouraging counselors and parents to sit down with students and come up with a decision,” said Beth Castle, assistant principal of Mount Si High School. “We’re hoping students take advantage of the appropriate course work to give them the highest chance of success.”

The math module is set up to help students who scored a two – barely missing the passing score – prepare for the four retakes. The first retake following the April test is in August. The course work follows a test-directed syllabus prescribed to prepare students for a retake, said Tracy Petroske, math module teacher. The state office of the WASL and office of the superintendent public instruction (OSPI) put together two-day projects of two- and three-hour assignments, which students work through, with help from the teacher, to cover all the materials necessary to pass the WASL.

“We’re going over different types of problems that would be on the WASL,” said Wagner, a junior in the math module. The module was recommended to him by the school counselor, and his parents were behind the idea. “They said I’d benefit from it. It’s helping me prepare more. I don’t know of anything that would help more than taking an actual class based on retaking the WASL.”

The module has a different format than regular math classes because the teacher gives students one-on-one help instead of teaching everyone at once, said John Train, junior. He missed meeting standards the first two times he took the test, in April and August. This time, he’s taking the module and another math class “to try and cram some useful math skills into my brain before I retake the test for a third time this summer,” he said. Having worked relentlessly on building skills in the class, he thinks he’s getting better at WASL material.

But more than half of the 14 students currently enrolled in the class did not want to take it at first and were pushed into it by their parents, Petroske said.

“A couple of kids in the class would still greatly prefer not to be here,” Petroske said. “But they’re really turning around and they’re doing well. The ideas behind it are really good, and a lot of it comes down to individual students’ motivation.”

Some students don’t like the idea of the module because it could take the place of an elective course. The freshman and sophomore years are intense with requirements and students often delay taking elective courses until their junior or senior years to take the module. But the course only lasts for a semester, said Gayle Smith, math department head.

“Students must pass the WASL to graduate,” said Smith. “It has to be more important than a particular elective they might have wanted to take for one semester. It’s one course, one semester.”

As a state, Washington has not seen great success with the math portion of the WASL, Smith said. This is partly because some students have not yet had geometry, which is part of the test, when they take the assessment. Most students take algebra as a freshman and geometry as a sophomore. However, freshmen who are not ready for algebra take pre-algebra first, then algebra as a sophomore. The school has around 80 to 90 students in pre-algebra classes, Smith said. When it’s time to take the WASL in April of their sophomore year, these students have not yet taken geometry.

The WASL also requires students to explain their math work, how they reached each answer, in writing. Not all students can express themselves sufficiently in writing. The module helps students learn to explain their answers, said Smith.

This past summer, the district also offered reading and writing as summer school classes to prepare for the August retake. A math class wasn’t offered because the district couldn’t find a teacher willing to give up a summer to teach the math class, Castle said. Instead, the math module is being offered during the school year.

“When we spread it out over a semester rather than a five-week intense training, we would expect that they’re going to retain the information because they have more time to practice and process,” said Smith.

There are alternatives to retaking the WASL. One of these is a “collection of evidence,” or a collection of the student’s work to be assessed, Castle said. This gives students an opportunity to come up with other means of showing their competency in a subject. To do this, students must negotiate with their teachers, counselors and the state to decide what is acceptable. For example, a math student might choose to simulate building construction plans and have to figure out all the expenses, area dimensions and so forth.

Another alternative is to use PSAT, SAT or ACT scores to assess student readiness. This is only available for math. Lastly, if students fail to meet standards of a section of the WASL but pass the class corresponding to that section, the district compares their grades in that class to a group of at least six other students who have also taken the class and met standards on the WASL, said Maggie Lucking, portfolio manager. If the student’s grade point average (GPA) is greater than the average GPA of the six students who met the standard, it’s considered to be a pass. The student also must have taken at least two other classes of the same subject with those six students.

Students in special education don’t have to take regular WASL tests. Special education students measure their ability based on the Individualized Education Program, a program designed to meet a specific student’s needs, and a team decision with parents, students and staff. If a high-school special education student reads at a sixth- or seventh-grade level, he or she can choose to take the same WASL a sixth- or seventh-grade student would take, said Castle. If they meet standards on that test, they are eligible to meet standards for high-school approval and get a certificate for individual achievement instead of the usual high school student’s certificate for academic achievement. They also have a total of five attempts to meet standards on the assessment test.