Testing Glitch Frustrates Teachers Across Utah
Apr 26, 2019, 6:56 PM | Updated: 6:58 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — A major glitch in the state’s new standardized testing program called RISE affected more than 18,000 students.
According to the vendor of RISE it was a server issue which caused it to have to be shut down on Thursday morning.
On Friday, the Science portion of the test could not be taken. The Math and Language Arts were working.
“I certainly honor and respect some of the frustration that our teachers feel,” said Darn Nielsen, the Asst. Superintend of learning with the State Board of Education. “When these kinds of things happen it’s very disruptive to our teachers and our students who have scheduled the test.”
For the past five years the testing program has been called SAGE test run by the American Institutes for Research. When the five year contract with SAGE ran out the state took in bids from other vendors to run the program.
A major glitch with the states new testing program for students across the state. The science portion goes off line affecting more an 18,000 students @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/048aP3Xgdi
— Dan Rascon (@TVDanRascon) April 26, 2019
Questar Assessment Inc. got the contract through the 2023-24 school year. The test is for grades 3 through 8th.
So far nearly 65,000 students had their scores successfully submitted through the test. Which means about 6% of students in those grades were affected.
Nielsen said with any new computer system with this kind of magnitude, there are often going to be glitches.
“I’m not making any excuses, either for myself or the vendor; (I’m) just trying to lay context to some of the challenges with implementing the system,” said Nielson.
He said the vendor is telling him that everything should be up and running properly by Monday.