State test officials: Kansas assessments delayed ‘until further notice’
School districts reported more technical problems with state assessment tests Friday, prompting officials to “pause testing until further notice,” according to the system website.
“Although the applications are intermittently available, we ask that educators pause testing until further notice in order to minimize the chance of a disruption during assessment,” read a notice on the Kansas Interactive Testing Engine website Friday.
“Thank you for your patience and understanding during this service interruption.”
Districts began experiencing error messages and service disruptions Tuesday, after damage to a major fiber cable in Lawrence cut service to the University of Kansas, where the online testing system is based. Problems continued Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.
Officials at KU’s Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation, which administers the tests, said they were trying to diagnose and repair the problem to prevent further delays.
About 9 a.m. Friday the center tweeted, “We are down again and recommend no testing today,” and pointed schools to the KITE server site for information and updates.
We are down again and recommend no testing today. For additional information and updates: https://t.co/0aCFZEOzug or https://t.co/HWdNB25pf0
— CETE Media (@CETEmedia) April 1, 2016
The glitches have prompted frustrated tweets from educators and others.
Shelly Martin, superintendent of schools in Parsons, tweeted: “This is really negatively impacting instructional time. Hoping our students will keep their motivation and focus!”
A middle school teacher in Kansas City, Kan., tweeted: “Buggy software, app crashes, connection issues. 2nd time KITE has gone down today mid test. How’s this acceptable?”
“Agreed. Unacceptable. Our apologies,” the testing center responded. “We are working with KU and KSDE on a solution. Information is forthcoming.”
Kansas districts are in the middle of a months-long testing window during which state reading, math, science and social studies tests are administered to students in third grade through high school. Testing is expected to continue through May 12.
The computer-based assessments were plagued by persistent computer glitches two years ago. Experts at the Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation said the problems meant there wasn’t enough data to calculate reliable scores, so state education officials got federal approval not to release test results for the 2013-14 school year.
District- and building-level results from last year’s state tests were posted online in December.
Suzanne Perez Tobias: 316-268-6567, @suzannetobias
This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 12:03 PM with the headline "State test officials: Kansas assessments delayed ‘until further notice’."