WASL testing to begin
Students in the Snoqualmie Valley School District will be taking the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL, tests beginning Monday, April 14. The schedules for elementary, middle and remaining high school testing is on the district home page: www.svsd410.org.
Students in grades three through eight and high school sophomores take the WASL each spring in reading and math. Students also are tested in writing in grades four, seven and 10, and science in grades five, eight and 10.
The WASL is a mix of multiple-choice, short-answer and extended-response questions.
Students must show they have a certain level of skill in reading, writing and math to be eligible to graduate from high school. Students have a variety of ways to meet the graduation requirement:
• Pass the WASL.
• Pass a state-approved alternative made available after one try at the WASL.
• Students who receive special education services can use one of the options available under the Washington Alternate Assessment System.
• Students in the graduating classes of 2008-2012 may graduate without passing the math WASL or one of the alternatives, but they must continue to earn math credits and take the WASL once a year until graduation.
Fall City man to serve in Coast Guard
U.S. Coast Guard Academy First Class Cadet Andrew Paul Lund of Fall City has received his first assignment. Lund will report to Flight Training School in Pensacola, Fla., for his first tour of duty.
“This has been my dream since I was four years old. I can’t believe I finally made it and get to start my career in aviation,” he said.
The assignment process started in February when cadets were given a list of available billets from which to choose. A number of factors are taken into account by the detailers at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington D.C. during the assignment process: the needs of the service; a cadet’s major; gender constraints at a unit; a cadet’s overall military precedence average; and finally, what a cadet put on their dream sheet.
Most of the graduating class will be headed to sea: 87 percent are assigned to afloat units, four percent will go to ashore units, and nine percent will go straight to flight school.
