No Quick Answers on STAAR Glitch

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When Education Testing Service took over administering Texas STAAR tests, it was supposed to be an end to the state's difficult and overly close relationship with testing behemoth Pearson. Now the ETS and the Texas Educa­tion Agency are dealing with the fallout from the failure of this new online testing system.

From March 29-30, some students taking the online tests in math at grades 5 and 8, writing at grades 4 and 7, or the English 1 end-of-course test found massive problems with the system: If they either logged out or took a break, the system kicked them out and lost some or all of their answers. Texas' Education Commissioner Mike Morath called the failure "unacceptable," adding that ETS "is not new to administering assessments on a large-scale basis, so I cannot accept the transition to a new testing vendor as an excuse for what occurred."

This wasn't a small problem; a total of 14,220 students statewide were affected. Worse, the glitch hit those most likely to face trouble taking tests: Around 9,000 of those affected were special education students, while the rest were English language learners. Out of that total, 376 were Austin ISD students. AISD Chief Schools Officer Edmund Oropez called the failure "a pretty big technical glitch." He praised the TEA's quick response and for giving districts latitude in how they deal with the problem. After all, he said, "The person who's affected the most is the student."

AISD administration has taken a split response to the problem. Students in grades 3-8 were not required to retake the test. Since those scores don't have an immediate impact on their graduation, the district decided to save them the stress. However, because high school students needed the scores for their graduation, roughly 200 students of the 376 were allowed to either complete their tests or re-sit the following day.

So far, there is no word from ETS on what exactly happened, leaving both districts and the TEA in the dark. Oropez said, "Our worry is that we have the bulk of the high school testing coming up."

It's bad news for ETS, which only won the Texas contract last year after the TEA ended a 30-year relationship with its biggest rival, British-based Pearson. However, it isn't the first time the firm had problems: There was a similar scandal over missing AP and Praxis teacher licensing exams in 2006, while in 2008 ETS lost a five-year contract with Britain's Qualifications and Curriculum Auth­or­ity over marking delays. In a sign of how few players there are in this market, that UK contract was handed to Edexcel – a subsidiary of Pearson.