WASL Update: March 13

Everything appeared to be screwed up as expected. The sophomores and freshmen generally knew where to be because they were in their regular culminating project groups, which met in the regular locations. Some seniors were ready to give presentations, but locations were confused if the regular room was being used for testing. Juniors, on a complicated rotation schedule, were most confused, but within 15 minutes after the start of testing, the halls were empty.

It's 11:05 a.m. As I type this, and testing began at 10:26. The building is silent.

The office had a scuffle at about 10:35, when I was down there. Apparently some confusion on location led some students to express their frustration in a way that was not acceptable. I don't know details. Three administrators, a campus supervisor and two police officers were speaking with a group of about eight to 10 students. I did not recognize any.

I look forward to debriefing students later.

EVENING UPDATE:
After spoeaking with some students this afternoon, it appeared the test itself was the least troublesome part of the day. Most had more complaints about the schedule, and the non-sophomores had nothing but contempt for how their time had been used -- as filler.

A colleague praised the sophomores in his testing group. He said they were "all business." However, with something that has been in the works for 13 years, he noted it seemed like members of the school board and district administration should have been visible on campus, even going so far as to encourage students and thank them for taking the test seriously. Yet none of these bigwigs was seen around Monday. That's a shame since only high schools are testing this week. Maybe we'll see more of the brass later in the week.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.