I’m one of the many adults who still has anxiety dreams about flubbing an important exam. In my dreams, I either have the wrong test or am in the wrong room. Either way, I can’t complete my exam and am frantic.
Some students across Georgia are dealing with a similar nightmare as they attempt to navigate the online version of the Georgia Milestones tests. The transition to online testing is hitting snags and increasing the anxiety of an already stressful experience for students and teachers. The tests now count for 20 percent of high school grades, influence retention decisions in the lower schools and count in teacher ratings. The testing snafus were not limited to one district, although Fulton seemed the most affected.
Teachers are often criticized for opposing testing, a peculiar allegation since most tests taken in school are created by teachers. What teachers don’t like are standardized tests developed at a level far removed from the classroom. After last week, I understand better why.
As one teacher said, “During day two of testing, over half my students’ computers froze, kicked them out of the system, or had computer keys lock up. Eight students had to restart an average of five times. There were a total of six tech people coming in and out of the room attempting to fix the issues. It was an utter nightmare. I didn’t want my students to become upset, so I tried to remain calm and pep-talk them through the situation, but I did have to step out at one time because I was on the verge of tears at the unfairness of the situation for these students.”
And a parent reported: “Of five tests, my middle school son had two shut down in the middle and one delay for more than an hour to start. His English language arts essay restarted after nearly two hours of sitting without speaking, water or restroom. That’s a great way to resume writing a complex essay.”
The problems are likely due to bandwidth problems, server strain, hardware failure and application errors. I talked to the Department of Education, which said, despite these glitches, it was seeing fewer problems than during last year’s inaugural run of Milestones.
DOE spokesman Matt Cardoza said the mass of students going online overwhelmed some local web capacity. Why didn’t these problems surface in trial runs by the districts? “I don’t know if they had the same number of people getting on the servers at the same time; that is what seems to be the issue. If you did a dry run that didn’t look at capacity – and that is the most prevalent problem we have seen – it is going to be an issue for you,” said Cardoza.
As a result of problems, Cardoza said, “We will be asking the state board to waive the promotion retention for grades three through eight. It’s too early to make that decision on end of course tests because they just started this week and there have not been the same issues with technology we saw with the end of grade tests.”
DOE's explanation didn't placate frustrated teachers. "I bet Matt Cardoza is glad his evaluation, pay scale and license aren't dependent on a group of 8-year-olds," said one.
Georgia uses standardized testing to assess students, schools and districts with a common measuring stick. These tests are supposed to be well designed so we can see what students know and can do. With failing computers, frazzled teachers and fed-up parents, students were unlikely to perform at their best. I'm not sure this second round of Milestones testing will show us what students can do.
But it did show what the state ought to do: figure out how to administer tests to thousands of children in a smooth and efficient manner before next year.
About the Author
