Legislative Wrapup: Delays in Math/Science WASLs Until 2013. Reading/Writing WASLs Stay at 2008.

This year’s legislature became the tale of two cities.

If the bills you cared about had to do with early learning or high demand degrees, it was a rather breezy session with few surprises. SB 5828, Gov. Christine Gregoire’s bill that implements a voluntary rating system for child care centers, was approved with little fuss. HB 2319 , which promoted additional learning opportunities for child care workers, also passed.

And SB 5841, which starts pilot programs to eventually phase in all-day kindergarten in the state, starting with Washington’s poorest schools, passed. For high-demand degrees, the story was much the same. SB 5731, which calls for the creation of 10,000 more baccalaureate degrees by 2020, was approved. It directs a task force, comprised of legislative, education, business and labor leaders, to study how to achieve that goal.

Then we get to K-12 education, which one policy analyst described as “the Wild West” this year.

A plethora of bills to change or dump WASL requirements and enhance math and science learning hit the legislature this session and in the end, the debate distilled down to two bills. One bill came to the governor’s desk relatively unchanged from its original draft.

HB 1906 requires that the State Board of Eduation specify and reduce the number of mathematics curricula in the state, creates a math/science coaching program and creates a common math placement test for two- and four-year colleges. The Transition Math Project was already working on creating a common math placement test. This bill now mandates a timeline for implementation.

Then we get to SB 6023, which was passed late Sunday. The final compromise bill delayed the math and science WASL requirement for five years, and left the reading and writing WASLs, in the end, untouched. The governor's staff has indicated she may still veto all or sections of the bill.

A Few Key Articles of Interest

The Seattle Times, April 23

WASL Deadline for Math Delayed to 2013

The Seattle Times, April 17

Ninth Graders Get a Jump on the WASL