A decision is pending on continuation of TNReady testing at LMPS (Lakeland Middle Preparatory School) this week after a second-in-two-days statewide failure of the Tennessee online testing platform this morning (4.17.18).
Dr. Ted Horrell, superintendent of the Lakeland School System, said this afternoon he is unsure what can be done as he doesn’t have all the answers from the Tennessee Department of Education.
He said the State advised that the issues are resolved and tests started could be finished or tests finished and not submitted could be submitted. But he talked with other school district leaders who said those options are not working.
Dr. Horrell noted the State has extended testing by two days, but he is up in the air about what to do at this point.
Right after lunch, the state department posted on their social media pages:
“Testing has resumed, and Questar continues to take steps to prevent a repeat attack. We will be diligently monitoring. There is absolutely no evidence that student data or information has been compromised. We believe the testing program performed as designed to mask and protect student information. The software is designed to save students’ work, so if their testing session was disrupted, they can resume and submit their answers now. We know this has presented challenges to scheduling and morale. We again apologize to our educators and students. We will be in touch with our districts later today with further info about the testing window.”
The chairman of the Lakeland School Board (LSB), Kevin Floyd, sent a letter to Dr. Candice McQueen, Commissioner of Education for Tennessee, and Bill Haslam, Tennessee governor. In his letter he expressed his frustration and disappointment. He noted the LSB has repeatedly petitioned the State to utilize alternative and more reliable assessments like the ACT suite of tests.
Letter from Mr. Floyd:
This morning, Dr. Horrell shared the following information about the testing on social media pages: “Due to a second statewide failure of the TN online testing platform, today’s TNReady testing at LMPS was interrupted, and the majority of students there were either not able to start testing, not able to finish testing, or were not able to submit their tests,” said Dr. Horrell.
Monday, Dr. Horrell said the issue with Nextera, the online testing platform, had been addressed and testing would resume this morning (4.17.18).
Because LES (Lakeland Elementary School) students are taking their TN Ready tests using paper and pencil, the issues should not impact testing there.
The state testing system has been rife with problems including issues yesterday (4.16.18), the first day for this year’s testing.
After the 2016-17 school year, about 9,400 of the State’s 1.9 million TNReady assessments were scored incorrectly, impacting schools in several counties including Shelby. Some of the incorrectly scored tests changed student proficiency.
Vendor servers were a problem for the 2015-16 school year testing. The state switched to paper exams and cancelled the test for middle and elementary students when enough paper copies weren’t available.
Lakeland has two schools: LES and LMPS. Students attend Arlington High School luntil a high school is built in Lakeland.
… File photos from Lakeland Currents,
