State Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson has announced that around 85 percent of this year’s 11th-graders scheduled to graduate in 2009 have met state reading and writing standards on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) exam.

In addition, 75 percent of this year’s 10th-graders have already passed both the reading and writing portions of the WASL. The majority of the class took the 10th-grade-level tests for the first time this year.

These progress report numbers are based on preliminary results from the 2008 spring round of high-school WASL testing. More comprehensive results, including those for students in grades 3-8, will be available at the end of August.

The progress of students in future graduating classes comes two weeks after Bergeson announced that 91.4 percent of 12th-graders in the class of 2008 met both reading and writing standards through the WASL or legislatively approved alternative assessments, the first class required to do so in order to graduate.

A record number of ninth-graders — more than 21,000 — voluntarily took one or more of three state assessments his year. Preliminary results show that one out of five students in the class of 2011 has already met both the reading and writing requirement even though most students won’t take the WASL until next spring in the 10th grade.

Because ninth-graders who took the spring WASL received their preliminary scores in June this year for the first time, they are eligible now to take the August WASL. Ninth-graders must have been in school during the spring WASL administration to be eligible to register.

High-school students who have yet to pass one or more sections of the WASL can register now to take one of more of the tests, scheduled for Aug. 11-14.

High-school students can visit www.k12.wa.us/waslregistration or call (866) 400-WASL between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. each weekday to register. A state identification number, located on the front of each WASL score report, is necessary to register.