As TNReady testing began Monday morning for students across the state, numerous issues were reported with the test, including the inability for students to be able to login or to save their tests.
Multiple school districts reported issues, including Metro Nashville Public Schools, which reported issues in one high school that had trouble saving tests.
Tennessee Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen reached out to directors of schools to let them know that no server crashed, and the issue was not related to volume.
On Twitter, the Tennessee Department of Education posted the following just before 10:30 a.m.
We share the frustration that some students had challenges logging into Nextera this morning. Questar has fixed this issue, and thousands of students are on the platform now. Over 25,000 students have successfully completed TNReady tests as of this point today. No server has crashed, and the issue was not statewide. This issue was not related to volume. Testing has resumed.
As of 10:30 a.m., the Department of Education reported that students were able to log into Nextera, the testing platform, successfully, and McQueen sent the following statement to directors of schools.
Everything is working and testing has resumed.
We apologize for the issues this morning. I will send an end of the day report with more detail.
The Department of Education said it was working actively with school districts and the testing company, Questar, to resolve the issue prior to the system going back online, and the following statement was sent to school directors.
Directors,
We appreciate your collaboration with us this morning and share your frustration that some students in some districts are having challenges logging into Nextera. We understand that over 20,000 students who logged in and took TNReady this morning did successfully complete their exams, and the platform has worked as expected in allowing students to finish even with some log-in issues.
We are actively working with Questar, and they believe a fix is already in place now. They are in the process of confirming that this fix will resolve the issue so testing can resume as planned. We will provide an update to you in less than an hour.
Thanks,
Candice
Schools reported that testing would resume as scheduled for the remainder of the testing period, barring any further issues.
A final statement was issued by commissioner McQueen explaining what issues arose that led to the problems with testing.
Let me first express my appreciation at your patience and flexibility with the issue this morning. The issue earlier today was not related to either volume of student testers or a server issue. It was also not a problem with the test delivery system – Nextera – any network or broadband performance, nor any district action. It was not a “crash.” Our understanding from Questar is the issue was related to a conflict between the Classroom Assessment Builder (CAB) and the test delivery system, which previously shared the same log-in system. This conflict immediately caused unacceptable log-in delays for some students. That issue has been resolved, and we feel good going into testing tomorrow.
More than 20,000 test sessions have been started and/or completed since the fix was applied at 10:30 a.m., and the platform worked as anticipated in maintaining students’ progress and allowing students to complete their test despite the log-in issues.
