From Paper to Pixels: Navigating Digital Assessment Adoption
by Kara Canale M.Ed., NCSP, Clinical Assessment Consultant at Pearson
As we know all too well, school districts are grappling with a myriad of challenges — from staffing shortages to surging student needs. While schools are increasingly leveraging technology, how much can digital solutions really help ease the burden as we aim to provide the highest possible services to our students and school community?
Throughout my 25 years as a school psychologist, I’ve seen firsthand how the Digital Assessments Library for Schools can streamline assessments — liberating staff from time-consuming administrative tasks and freeing them to focus on what matters most: supporting students and driving better outcomes. Even more important, digital assessments help promote equity among districts and empower student growth.
We’re seeing impressive results from those making the switch. In fact, my Pearson colleague Chuck Eberle, who is the Product Owner for Pearson's Digital Assessment Library for Schools, told me that we’ve had steady adoption rates, including by many of the largest school districts, since we launched our digital library in 2017.
How do you decide whether the DALS is right for your district? We’ve put together this guide to help you figure it out.
Benefits of Digital Assessments
Adopting the DALS brings both short- and long-term benefits. Chuck notes there are three main benefits to digital testing:
- Saving time: Not only is there increased efficiency and student engagement in the administration of the assessment, but we also save hours that would otherwise be spent on scoring and creating a robust interpretive report. This time can now be redeployed to more student-centered activities.
- Offering more nuanced tests: Typically, a given school psychologist may have access to anywhere from three to seven different tests. We find that when clinicians start exploring our Digital Assessment Library, they are often amazed at the extensive selection of assessments available — many of which they may be unfamiliar with or may not have even encountered before. With over 40 assessments, DALS covers a broad range of assessment needs and offers comprehensive testing solutions to support a diverse array of referrals and requests for evaluations.
- Providing equitable access to assessments across the district: Digital assessment products help minimize socio-economic gaps within the school community, equalizing assessment opportunities for all clinicians and students. They help solve logistical challenges, such as resource sharing and availability. DALS offers unlimited use of all of the assessments, so practitioners always have access to the right tests for a student, regardless of location within the district.
I’ll add one more to Chuck’s great summary: New converts often mention the amount of real estate saved by not having to store test kits and paper record forms. After switching to digital, often an entire school room that was previously dedicated to storing material can be freed up for an office, testing room or other purpose.
Most importantly, these benefits all work together to ensure that students receive more comprehensive evaluations, appropriate interventions and, ultimately, improved outcomes.
Navigating Barriers to Adoption of Digital Assessments
Given that the benefits are so clear, if your district has not yet adopted a digital solution, there are likely two main reasons.
The first one is legacy thinking and the desire to stick with the status quo. I’ll raise my hand here: Given my longevity and comfort with paper tests, I was initially a holdout. Like many of you may be, I was comfortable flexing my “muscle memory” in administering the paper kits I’d been using my entire career.
While making a change is difficult, among those who took the plunge (including me!), we hear constantly that they would never go back to paper and pencil again. Additionally, as new psychologists enter the field, they will expect the digital tools they’ve trained on to be the norm. I believe that making the switch will put your district at a competitive advantage in attracting top talent.
Aside from process, by far the most common hesitation related to moving to digital assessments is budget. Besides a DALS subscription, many schools need to purchase iPads to take advantage of the Q-interactive platform. It can become a complicated logistical challenge, with multiple people controlling different budgets that all have to be mobilized to make that purchase.
Fortunately, we’ve found many ways to cross that hurdle, even with the spigot of ESSER funds and related money slowing.
First, there are often specific grants designated for mental health and social-emotional learning that can be tapped by digging a little deeper into the library to identify niche screeners that can be woven into them.
The simple, annual price for DALS is based on the most recent number of IEPs reported to the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. However, this number is a proxy for pricing. Districts can use the library to test all students they are legally responsible for, such as those who are in the process of being identified, those who are being assessed for giftedness, and even those who don't attend school in the district but the district may still be responsible for (like charter school students), thereby expanding the possible funding.
By recognizing that the library has a far greater breadth of applicability than just the most well-known tests like the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children® | Fifth Edition (WISC®-V) and Wechsler Individual Achievement Test® | Fourth Edition (WIAT®-4), even more school professionals — including occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers, reading specialists and more — can make use of it.
Because these tools apply to a significantly wider range of needs, multiple funding sources likely exist across various district budget buckets. That can open up the purse strings to give access to budgets for Multi-Tiered System of Supports Implementation (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RTI), for example. DALS even offers evaluations for gifted and talented identification. This matrix shows the available assessments by age and the specific need targeted.
Some districts are addressing the budget issue by tallying up what they would have otherwise spent if they had bought assessments a la carte, proving the cost-effectiveness of the library.
Chuck also likes to note the substantial benefit of DALS built-in predictability — in a test release year with increased test kit costs, budgets no longer suffer significant pendulum swings. While costs used to be sporadic, with DALS, there’s now some budget stability the district can count on from year to year. Even better, the unlimited availability gives clinicians the freedom to use any test deemed necessary without worrying about overextending the budget.
Is DALS Right for You?
By streamlining assessments, DALS is a solution that can liberate staff from tedious administrative tasks, freeing them to focus on what matters most: supporting students and driving better outcomes. See if DALS is right for your district by talking with a Pearson Clinical Assessment Consultant.