New ISTEP glitches put educators on edge

Students in the Indianapolis area faced disruptions this week while taking a practice version of the ISTEP in advance of the test’s official start Monday.

The glitches were similar to those that multiplied last year and caused significant breakdowns of the statewide testing system managed by testing vendor CTB/McGraw-Hill. As a result, schools were forced to reschedule the test and disrupt regular classroom time so students could retake the exam. The company’s executives apologized to lawmakers.

The problems are similar to those that led Oklahoma on Monday to suspend its online standardized test, also administered by CTB/McGraw-Hill. The testing has since resumed.

Testing for the electronic portion of ISTEP, or Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress, can occur from Monday through May 13. The “paper/pencil” version of the test is Monday through May 9.

Patti Bostwick, Zionsville Community Schools’ chief technology officer, said the problems with the practice test are putting educators on edge.

Zionsville students experienced computers freezing up and were kicked off the test system Monday and Tuesday. No problems were reported Wednesday.

“I am hoping that we don’t have another repeat of last year,” Bostwick said. “Before last year, we rarely had an issue. I am hoping for the best but planning for the worst. I really, really hope this goes better starting Monday.”

The Indiana Department of Education reported that 21 out of more than 300 calls its office received about ISTEP this week were related to computer difficulties.

“The department is aware of the outages that Oklahoma experienced earlier this week, and we are in the process of gathering information about exactly what happened. It appears that testing has gone smoothly since the initial interruptions on Monday,” DOE spokesman Daniel Altman said in a statement. “In addition, our technology and assessment teams are reaching out to Oklahoma and working with CTB to ensure that CTB is ready when ISTEP starts next week.

“Finally, our assessment team is working with local schools to ensure that their networks are ready for testing and CTB has engineers available for on-site support.”

Wayne Township Schools spokeswoman Mary Lang said students there also encountered technical problems Monday and Tuesday. CTB representatives were at the district Wednesday to assess the issues.

“We are really grateful for what CTB and IDOE have done to respond to it,” Lang said. “I know they are working on it, and we are really hoping they can fix it.”

A CTB/McGraw-Hill spokesman did not respond to a message left Wednesday afternoon by The Indianapolis Star.

Last year, nearly 80,000 Indiana students faced interruptions during the test: Computer screens froze, and some students were locked out of the test. Others reported that the audio voice-over function for students needing language assistance also malfunctioned.

CTB/McGraw-Hill administers ISTEP under a four-year, $95 million contract with the Department of Education.

The company is required to provide “uninterrupted” computer availability from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every school day for the two weeks before each testing window, as well as for the entire testing window.

Call Star reporter Eric Weddle at (317) 444-6222. Follow him on Twitter: @ericweddle.