STAAR glitches affect 41K students

Unexpected computer problems affected at least 41,000 students across Texas as they took the state-mandated STAAR test Tuesday.

DeEtta Culbertson, a spokeswoman with the Texas Education Agency, said issues with a single computer server caused issues in more than 1,000 school districts across the state. In each district, at least one student was affected.

“There was a 20-minute disruption when a server went down and started working really slowly,” Culbertson said. “Some students couldn’t log in when logged out, and some were automatically logged out when they were taking the test.”

The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR tests, are a battery of state-mandated standardized tests taken by students in grades 3 through 8 and those enrolled in high school courses such as English I, Algebra and U.S. History.

Student scores on STAAR are used to rate the academic performances of schools and districts statewide.

If students score poorly, a school could be rated as “improvement required,” a designation that can carry steep penalties.

Charter schools rated as “improvement required” for three or more years can be closed by the state, as can traditional public schools that are given the rating for five or more consecutive years.

The server is owned and operated by the Educational Testing Service, a third-party contractor that is paid $18.2 million each year by the TEA to conduct STAAR testing. While the Educational Testing Service has an office in Austin, it is unclear where the slow-running server was located.