Austin Students Failing Tests Won't Be Retested After Glitch

AUSTIN, TX -- Student in the fifth and eighth grades who failed the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test won't be held back a year or need to retest after the new testing vendor seemingly lost the tests.

“I apologize for the continuing problems our students and staff are being forced to deal with because of ongoing reporting issues with our testing vendor," Commissioner of Education Mike Morath said in a press release issued Friday. "Kids in the classroom should never suffer from mistakes made by adults. We intend to hold the vendor, Educational Testing Service, accountable.”

Problems at New Jersey-based ETS began in March, when some school districts reported issues with online tests that caused answers to be lost -- a computer glitch that affected 14,000 exams. Subsequent problems include a West Austin school district's assertions that ETS had lost exams for its 3rd through 8th grade students it sent to the company, according to multiple reports.

But ETS officials dispute the school district's account, reports the Texas Tribune. The vendor issued a statement saying the test results weren't lost as school district officials claim but they simply hadn't received them yet.

“Scores for students in the Eanes School District are not lost and will be reported, as scheduled,” the company said in a statement. "As millions of score reports were returned to ETS for processing in May, ETS contacted the district with due diligence because our tracking system indicated we had not yet received their shipment."

Later, the tests were indeed received, ETS officials said, and they were just about to process them as the issue became public.

"The district indicated they had shipped them and this was subsequently confirmed," the vendor said. "ETS then informed the District Test Coordinator that the scores had been received and were being processed.”

But the Texas Education Agency in general, and Morath in particular, appear to be cutting their losses. The June 21-22 re-testing dates for students who failed the test is cancelled, and there won't be repercussions to students.

Still, the TEA urged educators at affected schools to use their discretion into accelerating educational instruction for students, if needed, for affected students.

"Districts are still encouraged to use local discretion to determine on an individual basis whether accelerated instruction should be offered to support students," TEA officials said. "Districts will not be required to convene Grade Placement Committees but are encouraged to use all relevant and available academic information to make promotion decisions."

This is the first year ETS had administered the readiness exams after the state discontinued its longtime contract with London-based Pearson, the Tribune noted.

Read the full story at Texas Tribune >>

http://patch.com/texas/downtownaustin/austin-students-failing-readiness-tests-wont-have-retest-after-vendor