This is a developing story and will be updated frequently.
Problems with online administration of the STAAR test flared up again Tuesday, as students in various districts across Texas were kicked out of tests and were unable to log back in.
The glitches come as some education officials say they need the test results for a more accurate look at where children have fallen behind academically because of the pandemic.
Dallas, Frisco, Plano, Grapevine-Colleyville, Mesquite and Wylie school districts were among those reporting problems with the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests, which were scheduled to be given to fourth and seventh graders in writing as well as an English I end-of-course exam.
The Texas Education Agency issued a statement acknowledging the technical difficulties across the state, calling the disruptions “completely unacceptable.” It noted that this is the last year the state will be working with its current testing vendor, New Jersey-based ETS.
The company “experienced problems with their database system, which are in the process of being corrected,” TEA officials wrote.
“All involved in public education in Texas should expect better than what they have experienced today,” they wrote. “We are working to ensure that our students do not experience future testing issues.”
Texas students experienced a variety of problems Tuesday morning, the first of several testing days this week. Some were prevented from logging in while others faced slow response times or couldn’t progress.
Districts were told to stop online testing if they were having these problems. Students whose tests were disrupted would be able to resume those exams at any time during the next five weeks. According to a TEA message distributed to district testing officials, students would not lose any entered answers or partial responses and would be able to resume where they left off.
It was not immediately clear how many students were affected. ETS officials referred all questions to the state education agency.
Frisco school officials sent a letter to parents early Tuesday, alerting them of the glitches across the state. They wrote that tests are being administered this year either on paper, online or in a combination of the two. Once a child has started the test, they are not allowed to switch methods.
Students answering questions on paper are not impacted by the technical problems.
A technical glitch ate into students’ testing time Tuesday morning at West Mesquite High School. Students made unsuccessful attempts to log into their English I STAAR exam while teachers learned the issue was impacting schools across the state, teacher Eric Grant said.
“We were very well prepared and set up to take this test,” Grant said. “The students handled the situation well and were patient throughout it. We just announced we won’t take it today and will transition to a regular schedule.”
By 11 a.m., Lake Dallas ISD stopped testing for the day altogether. Wylie ISD did the same.
Dallas ISD spokesperson Robyn Harris said that sporadic outages happened at campuses throughout the district, the state’s second largest. Campuses opted to stop testing on a “case-by-case basis,” Harris said.
Problems with STAAR administration have happened before.
In 2016, thousands of Texas students had similar difficulties logging in and staying online during writing exams, leading state officials to void those exams. ETS, then in its first year as the state’s testing provider, was fined $5.7 million for damages by the TEA and ordered to spend more than $15 million for improvements to its online system and test shipping.
“I believe this combination of liquidated damages with an additional financial commitment from ETS reflects the correct balance of accountability for the recent past and safeguards for the future,” education commissioner Mike Morath said in a statement at the time.
In 2018, the state was forced to throw out 71,000 online STAAR exams after server problems caused crashes during April and May testing windows. The state eventually fined ETS $100,000 for the connectivity issues then.
ETS is in its final months as the tests’ administrator, as its contract with the state ends in August. In December, Cambium Assessment was awarded $262 million for a three-year contract to administer, score and provide online reports for the exams. Another testing company, Pearson, will develop and create the tests.
Even before the technical glitches, educators and legislators across the state were divided about whether Texas students should even take the STAAR exams this spring.
Some argued it was wrong to make children sit for these stressful tests during a year upended by the pandemic. They said the assessment also takes up too much precious class time. Others, including Morath, countered that it is important to have a common measure of where kids stand so that schools can strategically combat learning loss.
Students aren’t allowed to take the STAAR remotely. That meant many students who opted to learn virtually this year because of COVID-19 concerns showed up to campuses or secure testing sites on Tuesday only to be sent home without being able to finish the assessment.
“Throughout the state, many students who have been learning virtually from home all school year to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19 trudged back to campuses today to take the STAAR only to encounter online glitches in its administration,” Texas State Teachers Association President Ovidia Molina said in a statement. “Now, many of them will have to return to campuses to try again.”
Noa Jewell attends school online, even in a typical year. He’s a freshman at the Texas Online Preparatory School, based out of Huntsville ISD, though he lives in Dallas.
He got to his testing site at the Mesquite Convention Center early Tuesday morning before checking in and settling near the corner of the room, hoping to distance himself from distractions.
After five minutes in, he said, everyone in the room was disconnected from the test. It briefly came back about 30 minutes later before suddenly crashing again. That’s when Noa and the other students found out it was a statewide problem.
“Everything went according to plan,” Noa said, “except for the main event.”
Noa said he feels sorry for students with severe test anxiety who need to “get in the zone” to push through an assessment.
Though he ultimately was able to finish the test, it took much longer than it should have. As Noa waited, he said he felt stressed, thinking that “if this continues to happen and no one is able to test, we’ll have to come back.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, The Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
