Goodbye math WASL. Hello end-of-course exams.

With a stroke of her pen, Gov. Chris Gregoire has done away with the wounded, staggering math section of the 10th-grade WASL. Though the much-maligned exam will linger for the next few years, it will remain as an optional graduation “requirement” and will be phased out for good in 2014.

At that point – under the bill Gregoire signed last week – students will be required to pass end-of-course exams in algebra and geometry as a condition of high school graduation.

Instead of demonstrating their math know-how on a single big exam covering a wide assortment of skills – the WASL – they’ll have to pass state-written final examinations as they finish their first years of algebra and geometry (or the integrated math equivalents).

There was probably no saving the math WASL. All along, it has been vilified by people who don’t think graduation should hinge on meeting any kind of serious academic standard. There were better reasons not to like it; it didn’t give teachers timely feedback on students’ weaknesses, for example.

But the fatal blow came in 2006 when more than 40 percent of the state’s 10th-graders flunked it. They weren’t goofing off; far higher percentages passed the reading and writing sections of the WASL.

The failure pointed to deep problems in Washington’s standards, textbooks and philosophy of teaching math. The state Board of Education is now busy overhauling the state’s approach to the subject.

But switching to end-of-course exams won’t automatically solve any problems. They are neither better nor worse than comprehensive tests like the WASL; each has advantages and disadvantages.

One of the strengths of an end-of-course exam, for example, is that it is given right when students have finished taking a class, before they’ve had a chance to forget what they presumably learned.

There’s an argument for that. But a comprehensive test certifies that students have maintained a working knowledge of subjects they studied earlier. There’s an argument for that, too.

The key issue for both the WASL and end-of-course tests is rigor – demanding that students demonstrate they’ve actually mastered a useful body of knowledge and skills before they’re sent out into a world that won’t baby them anymore.

End-of-course exams can be as rigorous as the WASL – even more so. The governor, the superintendent of public instruction and the state Board of Education show no interest in using this switch to dumb down the math skills expected of high school graduates.

These algebra and geometry exams are likely to look plenty demanding by the time they’ve become a graduation requirement. Don’t expect the WASL’s enemies to fall in love with them come 2014.