Tennessee education officials: TNReady is running smoothly

NASHVILLE – Tennessee education officials report Wednesday the state’s online TNReady testing platform is working smoothly after two days of issues.

The third day success in testing comes on the same day Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen is expected to speak before lawmakers.

“This morning, we have seen tens of thousands of students successfully use the Nextera platform,” said Sara Gast, Tennessee Department of Education spokeswoman.

“More than 85,000 test sessions have been completed or are in progress so far today.”

On Monday, Tennessee high school students had trouble logging into the TNReady testing platform. On Tuesday, the state reported its testing vendor may have experienced a “deliberate attack” to its computer systems.

The problems have spurred lawmakers to call for action, and McQueen will testify at noon before a House Government Operations and Joint House Education committees meeting.

The issues in the first week of testing this year were reminiscent of problems during the spring 2016 testing window when tests were canceled statewide.

The reaction from Republican legislatures has been mixed, with some saying the continued issues need to be fixed while others said the hacking of the system was unavoidable.

Two Republican lawmakers are asking the House, Finance, Ways and Means Committee to consider amendments to a bill that are focused on the multi-million dollar testing system tormented by a flawed rollout.

One amendment stops online testing this year. The other calls to not hold students or districts accountable for the test results this year.

Meanwhile, House Democrats have called for McQueen’s resignation after the repeated issues.

Reach Jason Gonzales at jagonzales@tennessean.com and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.