Buffalo, NY (WBEN) State Education Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia says computer based testing of English will resume Thursday for grades 5 and 8. This after a glitch caused testing to be canceled Tuesday and Wednesday.
Questar Assessment, Inc. diagnosed the cause of Tuesday's testing disruptions and implemented corrective action to address the problems. At Commissioner Elia's direction, teams from Questar's parent company ETS and partner Microsoft Professional Services independently reviewed and verified Questar's diagnosis, analysis and action plan.
"There is no excuse for the difficulties experienced by schools administering computer-based testing," Commissioner Elia said. "We are holding Questar accountable for its failure to deliver the services required in our contract with them. In the past 30 hours, we have worked diligently to fix the system so we can provide a successful experience for all users. Based on evaluations and assurances by ETS and Microsoft, we are confident testing can resume tomorrow without the issues experienced earlier this week. We thank our districts and schools for their incredible support and patience as we work to implement computer-based testing."
Elia says the education department staggering CBT to certain grades to provide a more reliable and successful experience for schools by limiting the number of testers accessing the system at the same time. She adds paper-based tests will be made available to all schools that prefer that option.
Elia adds Questar's database servers ran out of free memory due to a high frequency of transactions occurring on the servers which ultimately caused Tuesday's testing disruptions. This caused a variety of problems for users including inability to log into the testing system, inability to submit completed tests and users being kicked out of the system. She says Questar worked around the clock to take corrective measures to increase the functionality of the system and allow the system to accommodate the anticipated high volume of users.
Elia says schools that have already completed testing in grades 5 and 8 may test in one other grade Thursday and Friday. Thursday, the department will announce the testing plan for the week of April 8. She adds the department is working with Questar and the BOCES Regional Information Centers to get additional paper-based tests and scoring sheets to schools that request switching to paper-based tests.
