Computer-based testing was shut down Wednesday to rectify ongoing issues with 3-8 ELA assessment. Chautauqua County schools experienced similar problems before the “non-testing” day was announced.

“We were surprised it wasn’t addressed because it was very similar to what happened last year,” said Michael Mansfield, Bemus Point Central School District superintendent, whose district experienced issues Tuesday.

Future testing will be staggered for the remainder of the week, according to the state Education Department.

Computer-based testing, or CBT, is an ongoing state initiative to transition schools to digital test taking for certain assessments. The initiative is in the second year of the pilot program. Schools can elect to participate in the early version of the program each year or opt to wait until CBT is a state mandate. All schools were anticipated to transition to CBT by 2021.

Reported issues persisted from the 2018-19 school year into this year’s round of testing forcing the state Education Department to announce the “non-testing” day to allow the vendor, Questar Assessment, address ongoing problems. Schools can return to CBT for the ELA assessments today for grade 5-8. A schedule for the next week’s testing will be announced.

Similar issues were present in local districts that are participating in the pilot program.

At Bemus Point, there were various delays when testing resumed Tuesday. However when testing began on Monday, there were no observable issues.

Mansfield postulated the issues tend to begin when there is an abundance of schools logging into the system at the same time. He said many schools wait until Tuesday to begin testing, the same day statewide problems were being reported.

“The system seems to be stressed,” he said of a potential overload of logins.

There were even issues with students logging in which delayed them from beginning the online test on time. Additionally, there were delays when students attempted to submit their tests that lasted almost an hour.

Similar delays persisted in the Falconer Central School District, but Stephen Penhollow, Falconer superintendent, said the district was “extremely fortunate” to avoid significant glitches during testing Tuesday. However, the district did experience a 10- to 15-minute delay when students attempted to submit their assessments.

Mansfield praised the staff attending to the numerous delays inside the Bemus Point Elementary School and the middle school.

Despite undergoing a “very stressful” situation, Mansfield said the students and the district “came through it very well.” Three students were unable to finish their exam on Tuesday due to the glitches.

“Those things are fixable,” Mansfield said. “It’s a volume issue.”

The Bemus Point superintendent remained optimistic about CBT and even said when the system is working he only received positive feedback.

Concerns over the continued problems with CBT persisted in the Panama Central School District as well. While Panama begins testing today, Superintendent Bert Lictus remained skeptical of the state’s plan to fully transition schools to CBT if the ongoing issues continue each year.

“You’re always concerned with any kind of disruption that will create any kind of anxiety with the test taker,” Lictus said.

He said any delays could potentially impact a student’s performance. He hopes, if the state mandates CBT, there is a high level of confidence the recurring issues are remedied.

SED released a statement Wednesday afternoon regarding an update on CBT. Questar determined reason for the glitches were due to a “high frequency of transactions” exceeding the database servers free memory. The diagnosis was confirmed by Microsoft Professional Services and Questar’s parent company ETS.

Corrective measures have been put in place to avoid anymore issues logging in, submitting tests and being kicked from the servers.

“There is no excuse for the difficulties experienced by schools administering computer-based testing,” Commissioner Elia said. “We are holding Questar accountable for its failure to deliver the services required in our contract with them. In the past 30 hours, we have worked diligently to fix the system so we can provide a successful experience for all users.”

Ninety-three percent of students who began testing Tuesday completed and submitted their exam. Out of the 93,100, 6,600 students did not. No students will be asked to retake assessments, the statement read.