School districts around the state were forced to change their standardized testing schedules because of a system malfunction. Ohio’s testing vendor, the American Institutes for Research, told the state that students were not able to log-in and access their tests.
One lawmaker says this is an example of a bigger issue he’s concerned about.
Republican state Sen. Matt Huffman (R- Lima) has a bill that would reduce the state’s involvement in education, giving more power to the local level. He says scaling back statewide testing is part of that.
“If the local school districts had their local tests – I understand that we have to have accountability and some standardized testing – but if their local computer vendor messed up it wouldn’t have effected all these other school districts,” Huffman said.
Because of the malfunction, the state has extended the testing window by two days.
Columbus City Schools says this was the first time they had experienced a problem of this kind with the state system. It's unclear how many schools were affected.
The way student achievement and school performance are assessed is coming under fire from lawmakers. Concerns range from over testing to the way the information is presented through state report cards.
