TNReady sees second day of problems

Shelby County Schools administrators and board members railed against the Tennessee Department of Education on Tuesday night after a second day of problems with TNReady testing.

The comments echoed sentiments expressed around the county and state Tuesday after an apparent cyberattack yet again delayed the online exams, which factor into students’ grades, teachers’ evaluations and the status of struggling schools.

The system was back up and working Tuesday afternoon, but after multiple issues with administering and scoring the test in its first three years of existence, anger spread quickly.

“I don’t know how any reasonable person could think this is the way to do high-stakes testing, where not only students’ futures are depending on this, in our situation, some of our schools are depending on this,” SCS board member Chris Caldwell said.

Superintendent Dorsey Hopson updated the board on communications received from the state.

Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said early in the day that the system, through vendor Questar Assessment, was the subject of a possible “deliberate attack.” Students had trouble logging in Monday, but on Tuesday, most could log in but not submit their results. McQueen said students’ information was not compromised, and testing should resume Wednesday.

Ed. chief: TNReady test may have been hacked.

“We know this has presented challenges to scheduling and morale,” the state said in a tweet. “We again apologize to our educators and students.”

But the day was filled with criticism for another day of failures, and by late afternoon, Democrats in the state House of Representatives were calling for McQueen’s resignation.

Locally, SCS officials and leaders in the suburban school districts worried about the ongoing problems and the credibility of the testing.

Lakeland School System board chairman Kevin Floyd sent a letter to Gov. Bill Haslam and McQueen expressing “profound disappointment and frustration” over the testing issues.

“For two days, our middle school students have woken up and come to school expecting to demonstrate their learning on tests we were repeatedly told are critical, and then have not had the opportunity to complete tests as planned,” Floyd wrote. “The state continues to rely on these tests to hold our teachers and administrators accountable, yet there appears to be very little accountability on the part of the state officials and their vendors responsible for ensuring that these tests are administered smoothly.”

Hopson said he was “very disappointed” and had visited schools Tuesday to hear from students and teachers.

“People have a lot of angst in schools about what’s next,” Hopson said. “Have we been prepared, getting focused for nothing?”

Hopson said the state extended the testing window to May 8, an extra two school days, to make up for the delay. “It’s just not a good look,” he said. Board member Stephanie Love said she is worried about the psychological effects when students are told all year to prepare for a test that doesn’t happen.

Caldwell proposed adding a resolution to the board’s meeting agenda next week outlining their concerns.

Board chairwoman Shante Avant said she’s in favor of not using the tests against students or teachers in the next year.

For the most part, the testing issues affected only high schools, as all elementary schools and most middle schools took the tests on paper.

Municipal districts reported some students still had log-in troubles, but the majority of the problems came during or after the students took the test, when they were unable to finish or submit their answers.

The state told districts around 11:45 a.m. that the system was back up and running, but some schools elected not to move forward with any more tests Tuesday.

“Collierville Schools will NOT resume online testing today,” the district posted in a tweet. “Further decisions await guidance from TDOE and pending action in the state legislature.”

White Station High, an SCS school, sent a tweet saying they will not have testing on Wednesday. SCS Chief of Communications Natalia Powers said that would be a school-level decision, as schools decide when during the window to hold the exams. No directive has come from the central office telling schools not to test on Wednesday, she said.

“We remain with the direction that the state has given us that basically everything is back up and running,” Powers said.

Lakeland School System, Collierville Schools, the Germantown Municipal School District, Bartlett City Schools and Shelby County Schools all reported issues on the second day of the testing window. Arlington Community Schools did not have tests scheduled until Wednesday.

Lakeland Superintendent Ted Horrell said he has “concerns about the validity of the tests that do go through.”

“Our concern is that we’ve had such massive irregularities and it was not a typical testing environment, because we by necessity had to interrupt students and teachers” to help with technical issues, he said.

Horrell said the state said the data should be stored in the system, even if the answers couldn’t immediately be submitted, so students should not have to retake the tests they’ve already completed.

“We know we won’t do any more testing today no matter what, which means we’ll have to shuffle schedules,” he said.

In Germantown, the district sent a tweet saying students were able to start the test, but 40 minutes in, the system went offline.

All testing was suspended for the day at Houston High.

In Bartlett, spokesman Jason Sykes said online testing issues affected mostly high school students, but some in middle schools as well. Students did not resume testing in the afternoon, but did try to submit work already completed in the morning.

Arlington Superintendent Tammy Mason issued a statement saying anticipated issues with the first days of testing are why the district elected to wait until Wednesday to start.

Districts have discretion to start whenever they want, as long as students complete the testing within the state’s window.

Mason said she is “deeply concerned” and that the district will proceed after receiving further instructions from the state.

Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet