Education News – Kristin Decarr
“A number of technical issues have caused districts across the state of Florida to temporarily pause the online portion of new standardized tests the state began using this week. Students in grades 8-10 began to report problems being able to log into the writing portion of the exam, causing education officials from 36 out of the 67 districts to cancel testing for the day. Testing has not started again since then, and it is unclear when it will resume. A number of problems were reported, including not being to log on at all and being booted off halfway through the test. “It’s a nightmare,” said Broward School Board member Nora Rupert, adding the transition to the new tests “should have been slowed down.” The new tests, the Florida Standards Assessment, are meant to replace the math, reading and writing portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and will be taken almost completely online.”(more)