Land O’ Lakes, FL – (March 2, 2015) – Pasco County Superintendent Kurt Browning has suspended Tuesday’s administration of the computer-based Florida Standards Assessment in English language arts
In a recorded message to 8th through 10th grade parents, Browning said, “After talking with the Florida Commissioner of Education this afternoon, I am not confident that the state’s testing company can correct problems with their system in time for tomorrow’s test-takers. I do not want any more students to have questions about the validity of their answers due to problems with the state’s online testing system.”
The decision was made to suspend the online testing so that schools and parents would be aware before school starts tomorrow. The state assured superintendents that AIR will work through the night to resolve issues students and teachers experienced today, but the possibility that a resolution would not materialize prior to the first bell on Tuesday prompted the superintendent’s action.
Although most schools did not experience significant problems today, some teachers had issues signing on to the AIR testing platform to begin their testing session, preventing student access to the test. Some students who successfully launched the exam were kicked off in the middle of their test and lost their test information. Other students who were kicked off while testing were able to log back in the state’s testing platform to retrieve their answers. In some cases, students received an error message that could not be explained.
Grades 4 through 7 paper-and-pencil testing and regular instruction will continue on Tuesday.
“I am hopeful that the testing company fixes the problems we experienced today so that 8th through 10th graders can resume their computer-based exams on Wednesday,” the superintendent concluded.
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