During the 2014-15 school year, students in Washington — including those in the Lake Washington School District — were faced with a number of new state tests.

These tests were part of the new Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBA) and in English language arts and math. For science, the students still took tests under the Measurements of Student Progress (MSP) system.

The new SBA tests were more rigorous than previous testing.

MEETING AND EXCEEDING STANDARDS

LWSD school results showed that district students performed well on the new state standardized tests.

“Lake Washington continues to perform at a rate significantly higher than the state average,” said superintendent Dr. Traci Pierce in an LWSD press release. “In most grades, our success rate at meeting the new standard was about 25 percent higher than the state average. I am especially pleased that in many grades and subjects, over 50 percent of students scored at an advanced level.”

Kathryn Reith, director of communications for the district, added that with the new testing, students are rated on a scale of 1-4, with one being the lowest and four being the highest.

“We have lots of kids at level four,” she said, indicating that not only did these students meet the standards (a level three) but exceeded them.

In grades 3-8 English language arts, the percentage of LWSD students meeting the new standards ranged from 79 percent in third and sixth grades, to 84 percent in fifth grade. At the state level, the percentage of students meeting the standard ranged from 52 percent in third grade to 58 percent in fifth grade.

In grades 3-8 math, the percentage of LWSD students meeting the standard ranged from 70 percent in sixth grade to 80 percent in third grade. At the state level, the percentage of students meeting standard ranged from 46 percent in the sixth and eighth grades to 57 percent in the third grade.

“These initial results are encouraging,” Pierce said in the release. “Principals and teachers in our district have worked hard for the last three years to understand the new state standards and to help students achieve at a higher level.”

Science scores continued to be measured in fifth and eighth grades by the MSP. In LWSD, 86.7 percent of fifth-grade students met the standard in 2015, up from 85.1 percent in 2014. At the state level, fifth-grade scores fell from 66.8 percent at standard in 2014 to 63.3 percent at standard in 2015.

In eighth-grade science, 83.3 percent of LWSD students met the standard, compared to 86.9 percent in 2014. Eighth-grade scores also fell at the state level, to 60.6 percent in 2015 from 67.2 percent in 2014.

NEW AND OLD GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

Students in 10th grade took the SBA English language arts test to satisfy a graduation requirement. About 91 percent of LWSD 10th-grade students met the career and college-ready standard. Those students will not have to take the test again in 11th grade. A total of 94 percent of LWSD 10th-grade students met the graduation requirement cut-off score set by the state Board of Education, a slightly lower score.

For 11th-graders, the percentage of LWSD students who met the state standard in English language arts was 14.7 percent and 13.7 percent in math. At the state level, those numbers were 26 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively.

Pierce noted that the numbers for 11th-graders — both at the district and state levels — are skewed and so low because they also include the “scores” of students who did not take the new tests due to unexcused absences, refusals or other reasons.

At LWSD, 80 percent of 11th-graders did not take the test in English language arts and 79 percent did not take the math test. These students’ scores were marked as zeroes, Pierce explained, and included in the district’s overall numbers. At the state level, 50 percent of 11th-graders did not take the English language arts test and 53 percent of students did not take the math test.

Pierce said many 11th-graders opted out of the SBA test because they had taken MSP tests as 10th-graders. For these latter tests, they needed to meet the standards in order to graduate. Because the 2014-15 school year was a transition year with the state moving from the MSP to the SBA tests, Pierce said there were no requirements that students had to meet in order to graduate. However, she added, it was a federal requirement for school districts to still administer the tests. Starting this school year, students will need to meet SBA standards in order to graduate.

According to the LWSD press release, while the district met the federal requirement that 95 percent of students enrolled in a grade take the state test at all other grades, fewer than 15 percent of 11th-graders took either test. Because of the 11th-grade refusal rate, neither LWSD nor the state met the federal participation requirement.