About 9,000 high school juniors and seniors across Washington will be scrambling to complete work portfolios by Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.

They’ll be submitting a total of 15,000 “collection of evidence” portfolios – 2-inch white binders that will be filled with students’ work samples. The portfolios are an alternative option for students who did not pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning exam.

This year’s senior class is the first that must pass the reading and writing portions of the exam to graduate.

Alternatives, including the portfolio, are also allowed.

Students don’t get to slide into second semester like previous classes who were required only to pass a certain number of classes to snag that high school diploma.

Some teachers said they don’t believe they have enough time: A month and a half isn’t reasonable to turn out eight to 12 documents in reading and math, or six to eight writing samples, they say. (For most students, it amounts to about 16 to 24 documents.)

Lesley Klenk, who oversees WASL alternatives for the state schools office, said she understands the complaint.

“There’s a lot of ground to cover,” she said.

Then again, she said she hoped high schools have been working on the portfolios since October, when students started being registered with the state.

Each work sample must be signed by the student and the teacher to verify the work’s authenticity.

Teachers have also said they worry that students might not show up after school to compile the portfolios.

Many students work, they said, or take care of siblings. Others didn’t pass the WASL because they weren’t strong students in the first place.

Last year, the state schools office graded portfolios for 760 students.

Of those, 711 were math portfolios.

Fifty percent of those students passed the math requirement, even after twice failing the math WASL.

Those weren’t just students who barely missed the exam.

Many scored at the lowest level.

Klenk said that, among English Language Learners, teachers taught students vocabulary for the math prompts.

“Educators polled said that pre-teaching vocabulary did a lot to make kids more successful,” Klenk said.

So why not scrap the WASL for students learning English?

“The cost of it is significant,” Klenk said.

That’s $868 per portfolio versus $13 per WASL exam.

The state schools office intends to hire 220 scorers to grade portfolios. Klenk said she hopes to recruit retired teachers or substitutes interested in earning $175 a day with free travel and lodging.

Portfolios are read twice, 13 minutes each time. The difference of one point could mean a portfolio receives a third read. Senior portfolios will be returned to school districts April 18. Portfolios submitted by juniors will be returned graded on May 27.

By the Numbers

 • 15,000 “Collection of evidence” portfolios scheduled to be submitted to the state schools office as an alternative to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning exam.

 • 9,000 Students supposed to complete a portfolio in one or more subjects: reading, writing and math.

 • 849 Juniors and seniors in the Tacoma School District registered to submit one or more portfolios. Evergreen Public Schools came close, with 769 registered students.

 • $868 Cost to score a portfolio

 • $13 Cost of one WASL exam

 • 220 Scorers – most likely retired teachers and substitutes – to be hired to grade the portfolios.

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