SEATTLE (AP) - School administrators, students and parents are starting to worry about caps and gowns.

Every year around this time, a couple of seniors find out they haven't earned all their required credits or have overdue library books to return before then can get their diplomas. But the stakes are higher in 2008; this is the year the state's new graduation requirements go into effect.

Credit worries have not gone away, but now seniors must also pass the writing and reading sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, complete a senior project and write a plan for what they will do after graduation.

Although many adults would like to blame the WASL for all of Washington's high school woes, students like Brad Nissen, 17, a senior at Seattle's Ballard High School, make it clear that some things never change.

When asked what he was doing for his senior project, Nissen said, "There's not much time, but I can find something. I'm probably going to build a guitar."

"Probably?" his teacher asks, "Have you turned in a proposal?"

No, Nissen acknowledges, even though the proposal was due months ago and the project is supposed to be completed soon.

Most school administrators are not able to pinpoint how many seniors will fail to graduate this year, but they're keeping a close eye on the class of 2008 and trying to help them through the new graduation maze.

Jeff Snell, principal at Fort Vancouver High School, meets with the Vancouver, Wash., school's senior counselor every Friday morning to talk about the 60 seniors who may or may not graduate with their 277 classmates.

Snell thinks between 40 and 50 of that group will actually make it - thanks to some administrative hand-holding and a lot of hard work on the part of the students - but that number probably won't include a 17-year-old who just moved to Vancouver and speaks and reads little or no English.

Fort Vancouver is the district's English language learners magnet school, and new kids walk in the door all the time.

"There's always a large number of kids you're unsure of, especially before you head into second semester," Snell said a week before first semester grades were due, but this year the uncertainty is a little higher than usual. "The biggest difference now, there's more things to monitor with each of these kids."

He predicts the school's graduation rate will dip slightly this year, mostly because of the WASL, but he doesn't want to blame the WASL for every graduation failure.

He said next year should be better, because the junior class is already getting some of the help seniors should have had last year, Snell said.

Money from the Legislature is paying for some extra tutoring and review classes, but not the assistance administrators say they need to track students' graduation progress.

Credit deficiencies will be more to blame than the WASL for lower graduation rates, Joel Thaut, superintendent of the Granite Falls School District, told The Herald newspaper.

"I would be shocked if we had anybody who will not graduate because of the WASL," Thaut said.

The new state standards are forcing educators to be creative and flexible, says Josh Garcia, principal of Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way, but he doesn't have a problem with that.

Beamer has already changed the way it teaches math to better align with the state standards, administrators are aggressively accessing the alternatives to passing the WASL, and Garcia is advocating for changes that will help students learning English.

"The folks in my building are very committed to helping all kids," Garcia said. "They want all kids to be successful."

Social justice and fairness issues have inspired the only questioning of state standards, he added.

He wants to make sure the state is assessing math abilities - not reading levels - on the math part of the WASL and would like to see the math test given in languages other than English.

Currently, 27 states provide translations for their state exams, said Joe Willhoft, an assistant state superintendent of public instruction. Lawmakers are discussing a proposal to give students automated translations in other languages for the science and math parts of the WASL.

Phil Brockman, principal at Seattle's Ballard High School, says students learning English as a second language make up most of the group at his school struggling to meet the new graduation requirements.

"It just doesn't seem fair," Brockman said.

Out of Ballard's senior class of about 400 students, about 30 students have everything checked off except the WASL. Brockman expects the school's graduation rate to drop by 3 or 4 percentage points this year.

He said nearly every principal he's talked to is in a similar situation. All have interventions in place and they're hoping the extra help will be enough to push more students toward graduation.

But Brockman doesn't think the WASL is the enemy. Like many Washington principals, he believes the overall effect of the statewide test has been more positive than negative.

Gary Kipp, president of the Association of Washington School Principals, agrees.

"The WASL has done some wonderful things for us," Kipp said. He said educators are more focused and they appreciate the regular feedback they are getting on how their schools and their students are doing.

Kipp said both students and their schools are working harder. Because schools don't want to see their graduation rates go down, they are forced to work harder to help the kids who are struggling.

Kipp predicts the WASL will soon move away from the media spotlight.

"Transition to anything is always stressful. Certainly this is a major shift.... If we keep our heads as we go through it, we will be at a point where it will be a part of the normal progression of kids through school," he said.