MFISD students' answers recovered after STAAR testing glitch

By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula

Eight Marble Falls High School students affected by a computer glitch while taking the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test on March 29 will not have to re-take the high stakes test, a Marble Falls Independent School District (MFISD) official confirmed on Thursday, April 7.

“Ultimately, all the answers were recovered,” said Wes Cunningham, Ph.D., assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

District officials maintained a “cautious optimism” since the problem happened after Texas Education Administration (TEA) officials said it was possible answers were stored on either TEA or Educational Testing Service (ETS) computer servers, Cunningham said on March 31.

ETS is the vendor that administers the tests.

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 MFISD students were taking the online STAAR-A when the problem happened.

The computer glitch affected more than 14,000 students across the state, according to the TEA.