WASL Changes Coming Too Fast?

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Story Published: Mar 13, 2009 at 1:30 PM PDT

By Melissa Wagner

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They're just not ready. When I talked to the schools they all seemed to say the same thing, too many students, not enough equipment. They're all for a better test but the question is, who's going to pay for these changes?

Superintendent Dorn says he's done the research, and is comfortable at least 70% of Washington's schools are ready for online testing. But ask anyone in the Lower Valley and that level of comfort goes way down. " We aren't ready. We would be one of the 30% that isn't prepared for this to happen," says Lorenzo Alvarado, Washington Middle School Principal.

Alvarado says Yakima's Washington Middle School doesn't even have a computer lab. There's simply no space for it. They have a dozen or so computers in their tech lab and in the library, but that's not nearly enough for the 720 students who test. Alvarado says, "And even if you had a lab of 29, think about the amount of time it will take to funnel all 720 students through the online testing."

It's the same story at East Valley High. With just 30 computers in this computer lab, the question is how can you get 200 students through quick enough when they're taking the test?

East Valley Superintendent John Schiehe says some of his schools only have one lab.
And he's worried it will take time away from classes who use the computers for their studies. And who plans to foot the bill to get these schools up to par for the changes Dorn says he plans to start next year? Alvarado say, " That's another point of view that I'd like to hear more about from Randy Dorn." And East Valley Superintendent John Schieche says, " I don't know where you come up with additional money for technology,. when on the same hand you're looking to maintain your staff to deliver progress in education."

With the state almost $10 billion in the hole, the answer to that could be months away. Some districts talked about using laptops for testing. But that still costs money, that right now very few districts have enough of. With paper and pen it takes about 2 weeks to get through the WASL. If these changes go through by Dorn's plan of 2010, schools may be testing for more than a month, just to get all the kids through.

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