STAAR testing resumed at Central Texas school districts Wednesday, the day after a system failure prompted many Texas districts to delay or cancel testing.
Temple Independent School District reported that testing at two campuses was held without interruptions in the online Educational Testing Service system.
âTesting went smoothly today,â Lisa Adams, TISDâs assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said Wednesday. âWe had two campuses test today, and there were not any technical errors. However, tomorrow will be a better indicator of ETS ability to handle a greater load as we will have nine campuses testing.â
On Tuesday, a system failure prevented districts from administering tests online. Students were often unable to log in to the test. If they could do so, slow response times hampered students.
Temple Independent School District officials said they notified parents of the testing disruption at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
The Texas Education Agency sent a correspondence to school districts at 9:39 a.m. stating that âShould the issue persist, they (TEA) will make a determination whether to stop online testing for the day.â
At 10:25 a.m., TEA sent a second communication to school districts informing them that connectivity issues have not been resolved.
âWork is continuing, and an update will be provided no later than 5:00 a.m. tomorrow,â the TEA communication said. âIf your students have been able to access the test, they should continue testing. If your students have not been able to access the test, they should be dismissed from testing until the issue has been resolved.â
The Temple Independent School District announced on Tuesday that it will exclusively offer in-person learning for the 2021-22 academic school year.
Temple ISD Superintendent Bobby Ott â who noted that the decision followed consultation with the Bell County Public Health District â said about 88 percent of Temple ISDâs students are currently enrolled for on-campus instruction.
âRemote instruction has proven to be a far lesser option to in-person learning, in particular for our younger students,â he said in a news release. âOur data shows that students who were enrolled in on-campus learning out-performed their remote learning peers across the board.â
The third-year superintendent cited an increase in student failure rates across his district.
TEA said they will provide another update no later than 5 a.m. Wednesday. Author: 6 News Digital (6News) Published: 11:20 AM CDT April 6, 2021 Updated: 2:20 PM CDT April 6, 2021
TEMPLE, Texas
The video above was posted in November 2020.
A technical issue with the Education Testing System (ETS), which administers the STAAR test online, is impacting school districts across the state Tuesday morning, including Temple Independent School District.
ETS is used by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which notified districts about the issue initially around 9:30 a.m., then again around 10:30 a.m., saying their connectivity issues weren t resolved.
This impacted schools like Temple ISD that were trying to administer the STAAR test to students.
A local school district has decided that moving forward with remote learning is no longer necessary or as effective as in-person learning.
According to a press release from Temple Independent School District, Superintendent Dr. Bobby Ott announced April 6 that in-person learning would be the only option available for students in the upcoming 2021-2022 school year. State and local achievement data prove that remote learning does not yield the same
quality learning experiences for students as in-person, Ott writes. Therefore, Temple ISD - in consultation with the Bell County Health District - will open the 2021-2022 school year with in-person education as the sole option for all students.