Computerized testing is causing problems in state after state. Tennessee insists on computerized testing, even though it has experienced failures for four straight years.
Testing in Tennessee has been temporarily halted because state officials think that someone hacked into the testing system, run by Questar, the same company that has had problems in New York.
Student personal information may have been compromised, although state officials claim it was not.
“High school testing was halted Tuesday in many districts across Tennessee after revelations of a possible “deliberate attack” on computer systems, the latest in a series of problems surrounding the TNReady assessment in recent years.
“The company contracted to handle the online portion of the test reported the irregularities Tuesday morning, Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said in an email Tuesday morning to school directors.
“To our knowledge, no student data has been compromised,” McQueen said.
“The disruption came as districts around the state grappled with unrelated problems plaguing the online test for the second day. It also prompted numerous school districts to cancel or halt testing on Tuesday, including Hamilton, Knox and Williamson county schools.”
Computer experts say that no computer is immune from hacking.
Is the rush to technology driven by what’s best for students or what’s best for the ed tech industry?
It is time for state and federal officials to reassess the rush to put everything online.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Given the string of debacles in TN since the inception of TNReady, I’m skeptical yesterday’s issues stemmed from any sort of hacking, especially since neither Questar or TN Dept of Ed has provided any hard evidence. All we’ve heard was the initial statement that there “may” have been a deliberate attack based on traffic to the site.
LikeLike
“Testing in Tennessee has been temporarily halted. . .”
What a gosh-darn shame!
LikeLike
Testees are testy from Tennessee testing
Say that five times fast.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As we speak, Commissioner Candace McQueen is facing questions on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill. William Strickland, the architect who designed Liberty Hall in Philadelphia, sleeps peacefully in the building he considered his finest achievement, the Tennessee State Capital. McQueen is not experiencing peace. Her insistence on the on-line format for testing has her opponent salivating like so many predatory animals. It has now found failure twice. If it was hacked, the failure to anticipate it and take steps is problematic. If it just failed under load, then things are worse.
As far as I know, however, no one in Nashville is going to bring up Wilson’s epistemological difficulties as introduced to this website by Sir Swacker. Perhaps they should.
LikeLike
I seriously doubt anyone at the Tennessee state house has ever even heard of epistemology.
Or if they have, they prolly think it has to do with Bible study.
LikeLike
Or ontology. . . .
LikeLike
Isn’t that the study of aunts?
And oncology the study of uncle’s?
LikeLike
Did Someone Hack into State Tests?
I hope they did.
I’m glad they did.
LikeLike
If these tests are so vitally important one would think they would put some effort into administering them. Why WAS it so important that every state move to online testing immediately? It wasn’t “for kids” – the kids complain about the online format, which is clunky and hard to use. Who is it for?
LikeLike
I assume that to company here these are retorical questions
LikeLike
“Online Testing”
All for the dollars
Not for the scholars
All for the bids
Not for the kids
LikeLike
Here is a little modification, as we hear it in real life in the media
All for the scholars
Not for the scholars
All for the kids
Not for the kids
LikeLike
Ed reformers wrote a rebuttal to the activist Democrats in Colorado who oppose privatization:
The problem is they can’t point to a single thing they’ve done to improve PUBLIC schools.
This will continue to be a problem for them. They provide absolutely no value to public school families, and whether they like it or not most children attend public schools.
One would think they would have noticed this giant, gaping hole in the ed reform theory by now, but they haven’t. They don’t notice it because public school families are not considered a constituency in ed reform. That’s a fundamental problem and it won’t be remedied by demonizing public school advocates.
People were bound to notice eventually. Ed reform was sold as “improving public schools”. People don’t believe that testing is an improvement, and that’s ALL ed reformers offer public school families. They have to bring something of value to the 90% of people who attend the schools they don’t support. The charter/voucher zealotry was unsustainable based simply on numbers.
LikeLike
“The charter/voucher zealotry was unsustainable based simply on numbers.”
I love the past tense you used here, Chiara.
LikeLike
Ohio was down all day today, too.
LikeLike
The US Department of Education is now openly promoting a for-profit education provider:
“Through the EQUIP experiment, students will be allowed, for the first time, to use federal student aid to enroll in programs offered by innovative, nontraditional education providers that are partnering with accredited colleges or universities. These partnerships seek to expand educational opportunities for students while experimenting with new quality assurance and accountability mechanisms. After rigorous analysis and approval by both the institution’s accrediting agency and the Department, Brookhaven is set to begin collaborating with StraighterLine, an online provider of self-paced educational courses. Students who have some college but no credential will be able to complete up to two-thirds of a DCCCD associate’s degree with a concentration in business or criminal justice by enrolling in StraighterLine courses.”
They’re endorsing this provider over other providers, and it’s a for-profit company. The founder of the company is a politically-connected conservative.
Students should NOT rely on the US Department for accurate information on higher education. They are pushing product, and they’re using your tax dollars to do it.
Do NOT borrow money based on what advice or endorsements offered by these people. It’s improper for them to be pushing commercial providers.
LikeLike
Is any one else skeptical that there were cyber attacks in TN or NY? It covers a multitude of sins.
LikeLike
Cyber hacking is becoming a problem in ALL areas. I worry about the reliability of voting when there are no paper trails. Could it be that eventually testing in schools will be recognized as not being reliable simply because of hacking?
We know the testing is worthless but I’m talking about the crowd that is pushing this garbage. There is a growing movement against voting on high tech equipment. In Indiana we vote on Apple iPads. I don’t trust them at all. Smart people can hack into anything, and can do it quickly.
LikeLike
“Could it be that eventually testing in schools will be recognized as not being reliable simply because of hacking?”
All that onto-epistemological work down the drain. . . .
But hey, if it works why not?
LikeLike
I think that is actually very likely.
All that is necessary is that people lose faith in the security of the system. Once that happens, it doesn’t matter whether it is secure or not because people will not trust it. And if graduations depend on the tests, the schools will have million dollar law suit challenges on their hands.
LikeLike
“Everyone” (if Trump can make this claim all the time, so can we) is saying it was caused by Facebook looking for more personal info to steal for nothing and then sell to the Russians.
LikeLike
Like!
LikeLike
Like almost every day
LikeLike
Weird thing about the cyber attacks is that they have not been investigated by law enforcement. The Ed Commissioner says she does not have the authority to report the matter to TBI for investigation, it must come from the District Attorney’s office. State legislators today had to ask her if she would report it to the DA’s office. She said, yes.
Meanwhile, students are still testing and that test data will be used in their grades, their teachers’ evaluations, to determine if their school is placed on a priority list and to grade their school district. No concern whatsoever over student data breaches or compromised data.
LikeLike
In TN ed commissioner’s live testimony she told the committee that she was engaged with TBI & possibly looking at a possible third party investigator. There was a TBI attorney sitting next to her who said there was no criminal investigation.
In one absurd moment in her testimony she said that paper tests were more problematic & cumbersome because the tests can’t be scored in a timely manner.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And yet, high school students take AP, ACT, SAT, IB, and other national tests every year by paper without nearly the problems of TNReady.
LikeLike
When are the results of TnReady reported?
LikeLike
This is the 4th year in a row for a TN Ready dumpster fire. McQueen was grilled today by the house education committee & one rep suggested she
resign.
The spin from McQueen & most of the Republicans is a cyber-attack, though both the FBI & TBI decided not to investigate. I’d say a more plausible reason is that thousands of kids pushed the “send” button at the same time & the servers crashed.
LikeLike
In think you are right.
What is most likely is that the testing software is just buggy and/or
network hardware and IT technicians were not up to the job.
Of course, state officials claim a “cyber attack” to absolve themselves of any blame.
Funny how they are always talking about “accountability” for teachers but won’t take any responsibility at all for their own jobs.
LikeLike
“Student personal information may have been compromised, although state officials claim it was not.”
State officials say all kinds of stuff. McQueen also said, just the day before, that all problems are fixed.
” It also prompted numerous school districts to cancel or halt testing on Tuesday, including Hamilton, Knox and Williamson county schools.”
Well, it was also halted in some schools in Shelby county.
“McQueen tweeted that 22,000 students had successfully completed online testing so far and thanked districts for their flexibility and patience.”
How ridiculous is this statement? 600,000 students are supposed to take the test! So what McQueen is saying is that “3% of the students was able to take the test, but 97% couldn’t”
LikeLike
In the hearing, McQueen claims the test results have not been compromised and the data will be used in student report cards, teacher evals, priority lists, and district grading despite the fact that testing protocols were clearly violated. Students were allowed to see test questions, leave the testing environment then return to complete the test either later that day or in some cases, the next day. Under normal circumstances, students are not even allowed to leave the room to use the restroom during testing.
LikeLike
McQueen should be held accountable.
If she were a teacher, she would be fired for gross incompetence!
No excuses!
LikeLike
Just points to all of the insanities, inanities and invalidities involved in the standardized testing process.
And remember, those problems are only the tip of the iceberg of all of the onto-epistemological errors and falsehoods and psychometric fudgings that are inherent in the standards and testing regime malpractices. To more fully understand those “problems” I invite you to read and comprehend Noel Wilson’s never refuted nor rebutted “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other words all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
LikeLike
Duane, do you know of a school anywhere where there is no grading?
LikeLike
Don’t know if it still that way but my children’s elementary school did not give out grades or percents, etc. . . . The evaluations were a narrative with the student leading the conference by showing all they had accomplished in the class leading up to the conference. The teacher would fill in curricular details and where she believed the child was in accomplishing those educational goals and abilities and knowledge.
I have seen the benefits of this type of system, especially for those struggling and/or disabled in whatever fashion as it gives them the opportunity to show off their work without it being “graded”, without it being afixed with a judgment by the “authority”. I worked with many of the students in sports, scouts and in going on field trips, teaching a little Spanish to classes, etc. . . . I had worked with one handicapped student the same age as my daughter who, on graduation day, ran up and gave me a big hug, exclaiming “I made it!!” I truly believe that her elementary experiences without the ever present sledge hammer of grades over her helped her to to self analyze and realize that she had a potential that I believed would have been destroyed with grades (because they probably all would have been on the very bottom of the scale).
Almost all children love to show what they’ve done to the important adults in their life no matter what their skill level at the time allows. Hell, I never could color within the lines and my shading was atrocious-I knew those facts but still at times I was proud of my work.
LikeLike
The following was in my email from Commissioner McQueen sent last night at 7:30:
I do not believe she speaks to ontology or epistimology. She certainly says nothing about test reliability. Note that she sees this experience as confirmation that we can test online.
Educators,
I have heard from many of you over the past couple of days as we have had issues with TNReady administration, and I want to personally apologize to each of you and to your students. I was completely devastated when we heard that we were again having issues with test administration yesterday, and I am grateful for the patience with which you and your students have handled the situation. I wanted to reach out directly to you and share some details of what happened on Monday and Tuesday of this week. While not related, these events presented similar challenges.
First, on Monday, a conflict between the Classroom Assessment Builder (CAB) and the test delivery system, which previously shared the same log-in system, caused unacceptable log-in delays for some of our students when they accessed TNReady. Questar worked to resolve the issue by 10:30 a.m. central, and the platform worked as anticipated in maintaining students’ progress and allowing students to complete their tests despite the log-in issues. All reports led us to feel good going into test administration on Tuesday.
Then, on Tuesday, evidence strongly suggests that Questar’s data center experienced a cyberattack from an external source. Questar immediately moved to reset the system and actively worked to further their reinforcements, including notifying the appropriate authorities, and we have formally engaged both TBI and the State Office of Homeland Security in an investigation into the possible attack. Protecting student information is the first priority for the department and Questar, and the testing program is designed to mask and protect student information; so in that regard, the system worked exactly as intended as it secured student information. As a result, there is absolutely no evidence that any student information or data was compromised. In many cases, students were able to ultimately submit their test without issue, but we know in some cases, it does appear student answers may be missing. We have been working all day with districts and provided additional recovery steps to locate those answers.
Additionally, we know many of you have questions about how we are scoring tests in cases where there were significant interruptions, and that is something we are continuing to analyze and discuss both internally and with directors of schools. We will share more in future updates.
I know that these issues have affected our teachers, leaders, and students in numerous ways, including scheduling and morale, and we have taken initial action to address some of the impacts, such as extending our testing window. We all share the goal of having a dependable test administration, and what we have experienced has certainly not met expectations.
Today, we had a smooth day of testing, with more than 150,000 test sessions successfully completed – our highest one-day total ever in Tennessee. This would not have been possible without the patience, flexibility, and resilience of the teachers and students across our state, and for that I am incredibly grateful. In total, we will have about 300,000 students taking TNReady online this year, and while those students will have multiple test sessions, the statistics we see today confirm for us that we are able to successfully test online. I know many of you have additional questions, and we continue to have a number of conversations at the department and with our schools about additional next steps we may need to take. In next week’s Educator Update, we will provide a Q&A on other topics we have heard from you.
In closing, thank you for your continued dedication and commitment to education in Tennessee and for all you do, every day, for our students and families.
All my best,
Candice
LikeLike
She needs to resign. She takes absolutely no responsibility for this.
“Additionally, we know many of you have questions about how we are scoring tests in cases where there were significant interruptions, and that is something we are continuing to analyze and discuss both internally and with directors of schools. We will share more in future updates.”
What’s there to analyze? How can anybody “analyze” this?
LikeLike
Candice McQueen: when you are in a hole, stop digging.
LikeLike
Top dog adminimal edu-speak at its finest!
LikeLike
But it isn’t really the students’confidential information that concerns them. There are, without a doubt, more worried about the security of test items.
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 2:03 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” Computerized testing is causing problems in state > after state. Tennessee insists on computerized testing, even though it has > experienced failures for four straight years. Testing in Tennessee has been > temporarily halted because state official” >
LikeLike