More Common Core related online testing woes

Problems with online public school testing in Kentucky and in other states like Indiana, Minnesota and Oklahoma got national attention last year because such testing is at the crux of Common Core State Standards tests being developed by two national entities.

This year, Kansas beat everyone else to the punch, netting the rights to the first Common Core related online testing crash in 2014.Here in Kentucky, a trial run to see if our state’s End-of-Course Assessment on line testing was repaired got cancelled late in 2013. ACT, Inc., supplier of those assessments, announced it was unable to make the system changes required to insure smooth functioning of this computer-based program.

At this point, it is beginning to look like educators have seriously under-estimated the complications of trying to simultaneously test large numbers of students in a large number of different locations with computer-based systems. That may throw many of the cost estimates of Common Core testing out the window, as well.

And, don’t forget, right now the country is nowhere near doing simultaneous testing all of the students in all of the 45 states that signed on to Common Core.