Several schools in Indiana suspended standardized testing today because of a computer glitch at the company that is providing online delivery of the standardized tests, National Public Radio is reporting.
Issues were reported with the ISTEP+ tests from Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, and several smaller districts, causing at least a one-day delay in testing while CTB-McGraw Hill gets the glitch ironed out, according to the Indiana Department of Education.
The Indiana testing status page for CTB-McGraw Hill, which delivers Indiana’s tests to students online, showed further evidence of the error throughout the day:
“We have received calls regarding schools experiencing excessive Please Wait screens. We are investigating,” an ISTEP+ status page from CTB read at 12:32 p.m. Eastern Time. “Reboot the workstation(s). If students are able to log back in and complete the test, please do so.”
The schools, of course, have schedules they have to keep, and the state department of education typically allows only a narrow window for testing. The number of days schools can administer the test is further limited by the fact that some schools only have so many computers that have been prepped for test delivery and that can be used by students in a secure setting.
And small as it may seem, even this one-day delay could throw off the logistics of scheduling all the students in a given school for time in the computer lab to take the test.
Worse yet, the frustration that mounts when a student wants to begin a test, has studied for it, and then finds he can’t log in to the computer, may affect his performance on the test in a negative way.
Indiana Department of Education’s Daniel Altman told NPR:
This morning, there was a technical error on the server of the company that administers the ISTEP test. This error caused some students to have their tests interrupted. The company has told us their engineers are working to resolve the issue. They expect that it’ll be fixed in time for schools to give the test tomorrow morning. …
We are looking at potentially extending the test window. Obviously, we will work with local schools to make sure that they’re able to administer a fair test.
They are working to “resolve the issue”?! That can’t be a serious statement, but NPR posted it as if it was.
Didn’t CTB-McGraw Hill test this before they caused undue frustration for tens of thousands of 9- through 14-year-olds? Apparently not, because this is not a problem in one or two schools that didn’t configure their machines properly; this is a problem that seems to have enveloped the entire state in testing anarchy.
