Students in Oak Harbor generally did well enough on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning last spring to meet state goals in almost every category measured.

However, those goals will be more difficult to meet as they’re expected to spike next year while improvement in some subjects have stagnated.

School districts have to meet goals in math and reading to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The consequences for not meeting adequate yearly progress get more severe depending in the number of years districts fail to meet goals.

Sophomore math highlights the difficulty that could face the Oak Harbor School District in the coming year. Just a little more than 51 percent of the sophomores last spring passed the math WASL and that beat the state average of 50.2 percent passing that subject.

While performance on the math WASL met the yearly progress standard of 43.6 percent, the goal next year jumps to 62.4 percent, which is nearly a 20 percentage-point jump. The reading goal will also jump 18 percentage points next year.

By the 2013-2014 school year, all students in grades 4, 7, and 10 will have to pass the math and reading portions of the WASL in order to meet No Child Left Behind requirements.

Since 2000, high school math WASL results have ranged from a low of 36.1 percent passing in 2004 to 51.2 percent passing in 2007.

School officials have a district improvement plan in math and will adopt new curricula in algebra and geometry. They will review current textbooks and may find new materials that are better aligned with state standards.

“I have a lot of confidence in the work being done to address that,” Lance Gibbon, assistant superintendent, said of the increasing math goal.

Schools across the state have struggled to improve scores on the math WASL. In fact the state Legislature stepped in earlier in the year to change requirements. The class of 2008 would have been the first class required to pass the math, reading and writing portions of the WASL in order to graduate. However, the Legislature stepped in and delayed the math requirement. Instead, students not passing the math requirement have to take additional math classes until they pass the WASL or graduate from high school.

Teaching and Learning Director Kurt Schonberg said that educators are examining the way they are teaching math in hopes of improving instruction.

The state measures adequate yearly progress in 75 areas, and the Oak Harbor School District met requirements in all but three. Those were elementary and middle school special education math and middle school special education reading.

However, of the 29 similar-sized school districts in the state, Oak Harbor is one of six districts that doesn’t have any schools on the federal school improvement list.

Last year’s results showed the school district improved in two-thirds of the subjects tested among the grades. WASL testing begins in the third-grade and continues through eighth-grade. Sophomores also have to take the WASL.

Of special note, the North Whidbey Middle School WASL scores rose sharply from a drop during the previous year. Math scores increased by more than 11 points, reading increased by more than nine points and writing increased by 5.3 points.

With the results known, that information will be passed to teachers. The WASL can be broken down into separate areas within each subject. That way teachers can develop lessons to improve student achievement on the test.