When students take the Washington Assessment of Student Learning next week, the sophomores will be joined by dozens of juniors.

Those juniors are students who didn’t pass at least one section of the state assessment last year. The class of 2008 is the first one required to pass the reading, writing and math sections of the assessment in order to graduate.

As the law now stands, they have five chances to pass the assessment and they can take it in the spring and the summer.

Testing begins next week with high school students taking the reading and writing assessments. They will take the math and science assessments in mid April.

Because the reading and writing sections take the longest to grade, students take those assessments early to provide more time to grade them. That way students will know their performance in June and have time to prepare for their next step — either taking the assessment in August or preparing for next spring.

Testing in reading and writing for high schoolers begins Tuesday and finishes up March 20.

At Oak Harbor High School, 75 juniors will take the reading portion and 55 juniors will take the writing portion of the WASL. School officials don’t have exact numbers available on how many juniors have to take the math portion of the WASL but estimates show approximately 200 will be taking the assessment next month. Between 20 and 30 freshman also are expected to take parts of the assessment to get a head start on meeting the requirement.

In last year’s assessment, 78.8 percent of the Oak Harbor sophomores passed reading, 43.9 percent passed math and 78 percent passed writing.

To help the juniors meet the WASL requirement, WASL preparation classes in math and English are offered as well as tutoring before and after school.

“There’s a lot of things going to help kids get over the bar,” said Charisse Berner, curriculum director for the Oak Harbor School District.

School staff also have to work to ensure the younger students are ready for the assessment.

The school district recently implemented a new algebra class. Teachers are working WASL-like problems into their classes where students have to explain their solutions, which is a requirement to successfully complete a problem on the math portion, said Bill Weinsheimer, assistant principal at Oak Harbor High School.

For Coupeville, all juniors who failed at least one section of last year’s WASL were automatically signed up to take the assessment next week, said Glenda Merwine, director of student learning for the Coupeville School District.

Although she didn’t have a count on how many juniors are taking the WASL, last year’s numbers show 10 students didn’t pass reading, 36 students didn’t pass math and 11 students didn’t pass writing.

On a percentage basis, 88.3 percent of the sophomores passed reading, 62.2 percent passed math and 87.1 percent of the students passed writing last year.

Merwine said students who need help with math attend a study hall before and after school where they work with a math teacher to improve their skills.

The school district also implemented a new online math class which has been popular with students because it allows one-on-one help where students can improve in specific areas where they aren’t proficient, Merwine said.

Teachers are working to incorporate the WASL into their lessons to better prepare students for the yearly assessment.

Merwine said the school district is adding more classroom-based assessments which better monitor student progress and help them if they fall behind.

While high school students begin taking the WASL next week, middle school and elementary school students will take the assessment next month. Students in grades three through eight will take some portion of the WASL this spring.