TEA: Computer glitch affects 14,000 STAAR tests
The Texas Education Agency says school districts statewide were affected by technical issues with the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness or STAAR test.
Some districts across the state reported to TEA and Educational Testing Service that students’ responses on an online test disappeared. The TEA says it happened once a student logged back into their online test after either officially logging out, being timed out after 30 minutes of inactivity, or when districts temporarily lost connectivity to the Internet.
“Students are under stress, under pressure, especially those seniors, where they just have to think about college and now they have to take a step back as far as taking the star test and then go from there,” Burges High School Parent Rene Rosales said.
At least four school districts in El Paso reported problems, including six-eight EPISD campuses. YISD confirms its students experienced glitches, but are still trying to figure out how many. 20 students at Socorro ISD were affected, 11 at Cint ISD and none at San Elizario ISD.
“Testing is stressful enough on students and then have problems when you’re trying to take the exam itself,” EPISD Spokeswman Melissa Martinez said.
Martinez says students had problems logging into their account, or logged off then logged back on to find their answers erased. Testing coordinators were immediately notified–and students were re-tested on a case-by case basis.
Martinez says there could be more in the coming weeks. School districts really don’t know exactly how many students were impacted. The TEA will release a report breaking down the exact numbers. Until then, it’s really just a waiting game.
“We don’t know how it might affect scores, or if it will at all, because we don’t know how many students it affected at this point,” Martinez said.
The TEA switched testing vendors for the first time in decades, but it’s still unclear what exactly caused the glitch and expect the problem to be fixed soon.
“The vendor for the test believes they caught all the problems, but it’s a wait and see to see what’s happening, we expect that they be fixed by the next testing, Martinez said. “We don’t know how it might affect scores, or if it will at all, because we don’t know how many students it affected at this point.”
Commissioner of Education Mike Morath in a statement said the technical issues are “simply unacceptable.”
“Such issues undermine the hard work of our teachers and students. Kids in the classroom should never suffer from mistakes made by adults. Educational Testing Service is not new to administering assessments on a large-scale basis, so I cannot accept the transition to a new testing vendor as an excuse for what occurred, ” Morath said.
“TEA also shares in the responsibility in the proper administration of these assessments. As an agency, we did not live up to that commitment. TEA will continue working with our school districts, charters and ETS to address these and any other outstanding issues,” Morath said.
