A difficult graduation requirement could be delayed for several years.

Gov. Chris Gregoire wants to delay requiring students to pass the math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning to graduate, she said earlier this month.

Of the three sections of the WASL, 10th-grade performance on the math portion is the lowest. Statewide, 51 percent of the sophomores passed the math portion of the WASL. Locally, only 43 percent of the sophomores in the Oak Harbor School District passed. Coupeville did better, as 62 percent of the sophomores passed the math assessment last spring.

Rather than requiring students beginning with the class of 2008 to pass the math portion in order to graduate, this requirement will be delayed for three years and an alternative will be allowed for students having difficulty with the math portion.

That’s assuming the Legislature goes along with the governor’s recommendation.

As proposed, students who can’t get past the math test can take and pass “rigorous” math classes while taking the WASL each year. Passing those classes could substitute for passing the math assessment and meet the graduation requirement.

For this year’s juniors who are the first students required to pass the reading, writing and math sections of the WASL in order to graduate, some think passing it should remain a graduation requirement.

“I think we should definitely have to pass it, said Chris Egner, a junior at Coupeville High School. He believes that students have several years to pass the assessment and teachers can work with students to improve areas they are deficient in.

“They should look at what they’re not passing and shape curriculum around that,” Egner, who passed the assessment last year, said.

Students have five chances to pass the WASL before they finish their senior year. Some students take parts of the WASL in their freshman year so they can get easier subjects out of the way and concentrate on harder ones in later years.

Another Coupeville junior, Kim Weatherford, also thinks the requirement should remain. “It’s not a hard test,” she said.

Weatherford said there is pressure to pass the assessment, but it’s the same pressure she feels when preparing for any big test.

Glenda Merwine, director of student learning for the Coupeville School District, said she wasn’t surprised the governor made the recommendation. She added that, nationwide, math and science are traditionally the subjects where students show the lowest performance.

“Math and science are truly the areas where our students do the poorest,” Merwine said.

She said delaying the math WASL requirement for three years would give teachers time to help students improve test scores.

Students still have to meet requirements even though they may not get past the WASL.

“The kids are going to have to jump through hoops,” Merwine said of the class requirement.

Oak Harbor Superintendent Rick Schulte said he is reserving judgement until details emerge about what kind of “rigorous classes” would substitute for the math assessment.

“The key thing is to maintain rigorous commitment to standards,” Schulte said.

Ultimately, it’s up to the Legislature to make any changes to state graduation requirements.

Schulte said he wants to see what kind of proposal emerges from the state. He added he’s heard of a dozen proposals about the types of classes that could be offered.

Merwine said the expectations for math, along with science, are much stricter than for the reading and writing portions of the assessment. In addition to solving problems, students have to write explanations showing how they reached a solution.

The potential of changing graduation requirements doesn’t affect teachers. They still have to work to improve student math scores. They’ve been using a combination of training, tutoring and extra classes to help bring students up to speed.

Each school district still has to show steady improvement on standardized test scores as directed by the federal, No Child Left Behind Act.