Common Core testing resumes; problems persist
Nevada education officials offered public schools some breathing room from state and federal testing requirements as technical glitches continued to hamper a vendor’s computerized testing system.
In a directive sent on Monday to all school districts and charter schools in Nevada, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Dale Erquiaga provided districts with the choice of continuing the tests online or requesting paper and pencil versions of the federally mandated Common Core assessments.
Erquiaga also clarified that individual schools that make at least two attempts to complete the tests but cannot due to computer problems or time constraints may apply for administrative relief from participation requirements.
“We certainly don’t want to put students or teachers in a situation where they’re constantly trying to get into this test and getting frustrated and having a really bad testing experience,” said Judy Osgood, a spokeswoman with the Nevada Department of Education. “That’s really one of the primary purposes and important reasons to offer this administrative relief.”
The directive follows a decision late last week to declare a statewide irregularity in test administration.
That declaration allows the state to avoid penalizing schools for missing test requirements in its annual accountability reports.
Still, “federal participation requirements cannot be waived,” Erquiaga noted in his memo to school districts.
“This office will remain in communication with the U.S. Department of Education to address any concerns that may result from statewide challenges in administering” the tests, Erquiaga wrote. “Based on this office’s understanding of federal requirements and past practice in situations in which an irregularity in testing administration occurred, it is my belief that federal participation requirements will be met.”
Problems with the computerized testing system began last week, with many students unable to log into the testing server, losing connecting during testing and more.
Measured Progress, the company administering the online tests, told state officials that it had addressed the malfunctions with a new system code and reported at least 10,800 students in Nevada took their tests on Friday without interruption.
However, about 27,000 students encountered system generated error messages on Monday morning.
Late Monday, Clark County School District officials decided to suspend online testing until Wednesday.
“I wasn’t getting a confident feeling that we would have the issues resolved by (Tuesday) morning,” Assistant Superintendent Leslie Arnold said after a meeting with New Hampshire-based Measured Progress.
She added that federal scrutiny of the district’s testing participation was “in the back of our mind.”
“But that’s not what should drive us,” Arnold said. “The state has taken the appropriate steps to rectify what’s happening, and they are in communication with the feds.
“I feel pretty confident that they understand our problems very well (and) can communicate that to the federal government very specifically so we don’t have to worry.”
Computer problems only affected students who were attempting to stat new tests, not those who had begun the assessment prior to server capacity issues, according to state officials.
Common Core testing began March 30 in Nevada, with about 1,200 students completing their tests before Measured Progress halted testing. The server issues also impacted testing in Montana and North Dakota.
About 30,000 students had completed the testing prior to the server issues that started earlier last week.
Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton
