For the past several years, WASL scores at North Whidbey Middle School have improved. But school staff got a surprise this year when scores from last spring’s test showed a decline. They are especially concerned about student performance in math.

The results show that 47 percent of the students tested passed the WASL this past year, which is down more than a percentage point from the previous year. What is a sharper difference, however, is that the school’s math performance for seventh graders is 18 percentage points lower than Oak Harbor Middle School’s.

“It’s a real focus of concern,” said North Whidbey Middle School Principal Dale Leach, adding that last spring’s seventh-grade performance surprised staff because results had increased in recent years from a low of 28 percent to a high of 48.5 percent.

Officials pored through the results to find where student performance was weakest on the assessment. Leach said the weakest area of performance was in “number sense.” That area gauges student knowledge on how numbers relate with each other.

He said only 20 percent of the students who took the assessment were proficient in that area.

With that information, teachers can devise lessons that will help bring students up to speed in math. The school is offering additional math courses. A volunteer math course that was originally held before school is now being held during school hours as an elective course for students.

North Whidbey Middle School also offers a tutoring program after school. Leach said many of the athletes who have late practice participate in the tutoring program. After all, they have to pass their classes in order to participate in athletics.

The math scores aren’t the only concern for North Whidbey Middle School officials. They school had too many unexcused absences to meet requirements set forth by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Penalties for not meeting the requirement depends on time, with stiffer penalties coming the longer a school doesn’t meet progress goals.

Schools are required to maintain an unexcused absence rate of 1 percent while North Whidbey’s is 1.42 percent.

Some of those absences may be actually excused, however sometimes staff doesn’t receive a parent note explaining why a student missed school.

“We’ve got a problem with documentation,” Leach said. Staff is working with parents to make sure they send documentation on why a student was absent. He said the school would accept e-mails from parents, providing there is proof showing they wrote the note. That could be as simple as coming from a work e-mail address.