Sixteen-year-old Malissa Ellis tried her best on the WASL exam, and now she’s got the wheels to prove it.

The Rogers High School sophomore won a 1997 Kia Spectra on May 2 when her name was drawn from all the Rogers’ students who had put forth the effort to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning this spring or passed the 10th-grade exam in previous years.

Malissa, who has her driver’s permit, said she’s driven the silver car with her parents sitting alongside her. “It’s really nice,” Malissa said. “I’m glad I got it.”

The prize was the brainchild of Karey Howell, special education teacher and administrative intern at the Puyallup school. She wanted to motivate students to work hard on the WASL, a multiday test that’s a key measure in determining whether schools meet achievement goals. For the first time, this year’s seniors must have passed the reading and writing sections to graduate, and either have passed the math section or continued to take and pass math classes.

“Sometimes they shut down and … give up” during the test, Howell said. And “sometimes we have kids who come in and put their hood over their head and sleep.”

So when Howell was buying a car in August at Bruce Titus Chevrolet, she asked general manager Robin Maris, who’s sold her several cars over the years, whether the Tacoma dealership would donate a car for the cause.

“I have kids of my own,” Maris said. “I think getting kids to believe in the WASL testing is important.”

Last month, Howell picked up the Spectra, worth about $3,500, from the Tacoma dealership and parked it in the school courtyard, where it enticed teens to put their all into the WASL.

Was it a successful motivator? “Absolutely,” Howell said.

Testing proctors stood ready to remove from the drawing the names of students who didn’t show up for the WASL or who obviously made little attempt to pass.

Unlike past years, no one was reported to be slacking. Kids had to be present when the drawing was held and broadcast via the school’s closed-circuit TV system.

Malissa anxiously watched, hoping she would get the car but thinking there were too many names in the pool for hers to be picked.

The first student whose name was drawn wasn’t at school. When Principal Scott Brittain next read Malissa’s name, she had 60 seconds to show up in the office.

She did.

“No matter what, I was going to try my best” on the WASL, said Malissa, who holds a 3.95 grade-point average. “It matters to me to do my best in school.”

Still, she added, “It (the contest) was kind of a motivation to be there and show up for it.”

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694