WASL Has Some Real Impact

Thanks to the WASL the Seattle School District is doing part of what it should have always been doing:

One in four sophomores in Seattle Public Schools has failed so many classes that the district has “reclassified” them as freshmen.

Nearly half the sophomores at Rainier Beach High School and about one-third of the 10th-graders at Cleveland , Chief Sealth and Franklin are now considered freshmen. The 827 students districtwide can remain with their peers in classes, sports and other activities but must make up the credits in night or summer school in order to graduate on time.

The hold backs, though, should start in kindergarten or first grade. Many of these students are having problems as ninth graders because they were passed on from the lower grades without the skills to succeed.

Allowing them to remain with their peers in classes will perpetuate the problem. If they failed a freshman class just how are they expected to pass sophomore classes that build on the earlier ones?

Paul asks:

If 25% of the 2010 entry-level work force of this state can’t pass their Freshman year of High School , the rest of us are going to have a hell of a time picking up the slack.

Absolutely right and the fact that we’ve been having to pick up the slack for decades is a big part of why we are in the mess we are today.