EVANSVILLE— After the first two days of Indiana’s online ISTEP-Plus testing were halted by technical issues Monday and Tuesday, elementary and middle school students resumed taking the annual standardized exam Wednesday morning.
CTB/McGraw-Hill, the vendor hired by the state to administer the test, announced in a message posted on its website about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday that “systems are ready to go.”
However the message also asked that schools decrease their daily test load to 50 percent of normal levels until further notice to allow flexibility in the online system’s load/memory capacity. For example, officials recommended rather than testing two grade levels at the same time, a school should make arrangements to test only one.
Problems assessing and completing the online test led Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz to cancel testing on both Monday and Tuesday.
Angela Wannemuehler, director of curriculum, assessment and special programs for the Metropolitan School District of North Posey, said “at this point I think everybody’s anxious every day when we log in what the outcome could be.”
Wannemuehler was “absolutely thrilled” testing was “smooth sailing” on Wednesday.
“It’s just been a difficult two days for a testing situation,” she said. “Whatever adjustments they made ... it’s going off without a hitch right now.”
Other local districts, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., Metropolitan School District of Mount Vernon and Warrick County School Corp., reported similar successes Wednesday.
William Stein, director of technology for the MSD of Mount Vernon, admitted testing went better because schools were asked to decrease the number of students testing.
“On the technical side, I have my doubts that this will work because CTB is trying to manage the problem rather than fix it,” Stein said. “And I say “problem” because this is much, much more than a glitch. Glitches are trivial and can be worked around. This is a major malfunction with major implications. However, here in Mount Vernon our staff of principals and teachers are staying very focused and positive to ensure students have the best environment possible while taking the test.”
Issues began around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday after CTB/McGraw-Hill assured the exam would be administered flawlessly. Nearly 27,000 students were unable to access the exam, which evaluates the abilities of students and performance of teachers.
Marsha Jackson, EVSC chief communication officer, said decreasing testing means it will take longer to finish, and EVSC schools “will most likely” use those additional testing days. The assessment testing window was originally April 29-May 10, but was extended three school days to May 15 by the Department of Education.
Officials with the Mount Vernon, Warrick County and North Posey districts said it will depend on the size of the school whether additional testing days are needed.
In a statement dated April 30, McGraw-Hill “sincerely” apologized to Hoosier students, parents, teachers and Ritz for “this unfortunate situation.” Before April 29, CTB said performance and loading tests were conducted on the system to simulate live school assessment scenarios. But McGraw-Hill said the simulations “did not fully anticipate the patterns of live student testing.”
The system settings were adjusted and hardware was increased to improve performance. McGraw-Hill ensured no data was lost and students affected by the interruptions would be able to resume testing where they left off.
“The interruptions are not acceptable to the students and educators of Indiana or to CTB/McGraw-Hill,” the company statement said. “We have worked with the schools in Indiana for many years and value our relationships with them.”
The company is currently in a four-year, $95 million contract with Indiana through June 2014. The contract requires McGraw-Hill to provide “uninterrupted” computer availability every school day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the two weeks before each testing window, as well as for the entire testing window.
According to Wannemuehler, most of the anxiety is still over the issues on Monday when districts weren’t sure whether the problems were local or from the state.
“I think everybody is interested in how they’re going to treat the validity of those tests,” she said.
In 2011, up to 10,000 students statewide were logged off and some were unable to log back in for up to an hour while taking ISTEP. The state invalidated 215 scores that year because they were lower than expected. And about 9,000 students were kicked offline during the test last year.