CCSD indefinitely suspends state student testing
Systemic computer glitches continued to plague the state’s online student testing system on Thursday, prompting the Clark County School District to suspend the tests indefinitely.
Even after the district postponed testing earlier this week to lower the strain on computer servers, about 3,000 students at eight campuses still encountered technical errors when they tried to access the federally mandated assessments.
The glitches included login errors, an inability to enter answers and questions placed out of order, said Assistant Superintendent Leslie Arnold.
“This is clearly not a district issue,” Arnold said, adding that every district in the state reported similar problems to the Nevada Department of Education and the two vendors administering the tests.
Judy Osgood, spokeswoman for the department, echoed Arnold.
“All districts that tested (Thursday) are reporting continuing problems with logging in and getting through the tests,” Osgood wrote in an email. “We continue to await solutions from the test vendors.”
On Tuesday, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Dale Erquiaga informed the two vendors — New Hampshire-based Measured Progress and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a public organization associated with the University of California, Los Angeles — that they had violated their contract to deliver the online testing system on time.
He cited clauses in their contract that required a fix to the glitches within the coming weeks or risk the state terminating their contracts.
An amended contract between Nevada and Measured Progress shows the vendor would have collected more than $7.5 million for its work in fiscal year 2015.
Based on the number of students tested, the annual fees that Smarter Balanced would have collected exceed $1.3 million, according to a separate contract with the organization.
Problems with computerized testing began last week, with many students unable to log into the testing server, losing connection during testing and more.
Measured Progress told state officials that it had addressed the malfunctions with a new server code and reported at least 10,800 students in Nevada took their tests on Friday without interruption.
Similar glitches have hampered online testing in Montana and North Dakota, where education officials have permitted school districts to opt out of the tests or to request paper-and-pencil versions, according to local media reports.
Martin Borg, president and CEO of Measured Progress, said in a statement that the firm has a “long history” of success with online testing.
However, “there were bound to be some initial challenges” with its rollout in Nevada.
“We apologize for the frustration and inconvenience that students and educators experienced as a result,” Borg said. “And we remain committed to the goal of helping our clients provide a successful online testing experience for their students.”
He added that Measured Progress already fixed the glitches in Montana and North Dakota with “recent modifications” to its server system.
Contact Neal Morton at nmorton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton
