Vendors put on notice over Common Core test administration issues
Following days of computerized testing glitches, the Nevada Department of Education decided to notify two vendors that they were violating their contracts to deliver the federally mandated assessments.
The glitches prompted the Clark County School District to suspend online testing until today. That made it possible for more than 10,000 other Nevada students to successfully take the basic skills tests on Tuesday, suggested state education department spokeswoman Judy Osgood.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dale Erquiaga asked Clark County Superintendent Pat Skorkowsy to suspend online testing for at least one more day, according to a news release. The district said it would comply.
“They apparently went fine with fairly minor interruptions,” Osgood said. “It seems to be if we keep the number at 10,000 or below of test participants, it runs fairly smoothly.
“But of course that’s not what we need to get everyone tested.”
After consulting with the state attorney general’s office, Erquiaga announced he would notify New Hampshire-based Measured Progress and the public organization Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium of their failure to administer the online Common Core tests.
Osgood explained that the state has not officially sued either vendor.
Smarter Balanced is reviewing Nevada’s notification, Luci Willits, deputy executive director for the organization, wrote in an email.
A representative for Measured Progress was not immediately available for comment late Tuesday.
An amended contract between the state 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 to be tested, the annual fees that Smarter Balanced would have collected exceed $1.3 million, according to a separate contract between the organization and Nevada.
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.
However, the issues continued when online testing resumed Monday.
The server issues also have impacted student testing in Montana and North Dakota.
Contact Neal Morton at 702-383-0279 or nmorton@reviewjournal.com. Find him on Twitter: @nealtmorton
