New Jersey students experienced a system error as they tried to log-in to take their PARCC assessment, and now the assessments have been delayed.
NJ.com reports:
New Jersey schools were forced to postpone PARCC testing in grades 3 through 11 Wednesday morning because of a technical error that prevented students from logging on to the computerized exams, state Education Commissioner David Hespe said.
The problem is with the testing platform provided by Pearson, the company that creates the exams, called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests, Hespe said.
Hespe called the technical error “totally unacceptable” but did not provide specific details of what went wrong.
“This is not a problem on our end,” Hespe said. “This is a problem on Pearson’s end.”
Pearson of course then blamed the PARCC consortium.
Testing has been postponed. This isn’t the first time PARCC has experienced glitches. Smarter Balanced has also experienced them to. How embarrassing for a state that has doubled down on the PARCC assessment to the point they are making it a graduation requirement, but speaking of that.
In other bad news for the state of New Jersey (but good news for parents and students), an administrative law judge indicates that New Jersey may have violated the law in making passing PARCC a graduation requirement.
From the Morristown Patch:
The judge suggested the state violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which requires public notice, periods of public comment and a variety of steps when the Department of Education makes a change in assessment testing.
“Changing them without revising the statute is a violation of the law,” said Stan Karp of the Education Law Center.
The lawsuit also claims the state possibly violated due process laws when it did away with the High School Proficiency Assessment and adopted PARCC and other tests as graduation requirements. Concerns also have been raised about the potential impact of the proposed policies, especially on at-risk students.
What a department of education did something without public notice or comment? I’m shocked… shocked that would be illegal in New Jersey that is.
Karen Bracken says
This issue is being experienced in many states but we continue to pay our money to Pearson. We need to put true education conservatives (like us) in Governor spots if we ever expect to turn this around. If we could get a couple Governors to tell the federal government to take a hike and send them only the money thdy are entitled to under the Constitution only then will we begin to restore this country. Until then it is time for parents to STARVE THE BEAST!!!