MFISD, BCISD STAAR testers affected by statewide computer glitch

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

Eight Marble Falls Independent School District (MFISD) students, and an unknown number of Burnet Consolidated Independent School District (BCISD) students, joined hundreds of others across the state when they encountered a computer glitch while taking the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test on Tuesday, March 29, said MFISD officials on March 31.

The MFISD students at different grade levels were taking the computer-based

STAAR A (or “accommodated” version) test in several different subjects when their answers on the online tests stopped appearing.

Seventy students were taking the online STAAR A when the problem happened. “The bulk of STAAR test-taking in the district is on paper, said Dr. Wes Cunningham, MFISD assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

The problem became apparent when students would take a break between sections and would try to resume testing and “in some cases, their answers were gone,” he explained.

Immediately, testing coordinators reported the problem to both the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Educational Testing Service (ETS), the vendor administering the tests.

“The TEA assured us fairly early that they felt confident students’ answers were cached on ETS and TEA computer servers, but we just couldn’t see them on the screen,” Cunningham said. He compared it to being interrupted while typing a document and forgetting to save, but thanks to auto-save it is not lost.  

For more on this story, see The Highlander on Friday, April 1.