In 2000 the state of Washington has passed a law House Bill 2124 this revises the existing Certificate of Mastery graduation requirement; this requires students to pass the WASL (Washington Assessment of Student Learning) and takes effect in 2008. The WASL was designed to help teachers refine instructional strategies, increase student achievement and provide data on the performance of schools and districts over time. The present events have shown that the WASL is more than that, it's a grading criterion.

I think the WASL should be a state assessment test and I think that it's a good assessment test, but it's not a grading tool it has never been nor was it designed and it's not able to be a grading tool.

If students don't pass the WASL they won't graduate. I read in an article that "Washington state teachers and education specialists developed specific scoring criteria for each subject tested...