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On Wednesday, Questar Assessment, Inc.’s administration of the grades 3 – 8 English Language Arts computer-based assessments experienced an unacceptable failure. Department staff have been in constant communication with Questar at the highest levels to determine the root cause of this technical issue so it can be addressed and prevented in the future.Ìý

While more than 135,000 testing sessions were completed through yesterday, the difficulties schools have faced in administering the computer-based assessments are inexcusable. We will accept nothing short of seamless implementation for our students and schools testing on computers.

In light of the issues school districts experienced Wednesday, the Department has directed Questar to maintain contact with Department staff over the weekend to provide regular updates and action steps regarding the status of CBT as we move into the next week of testing. Further, we have directed Questar to provide a root-cause analysis of the technical issue that occurred during the ELA CBT administration and ensure that this issue will not occur again during the administration of mathematics CBT in May. In addition, the Department will continue to review its contract with Questar to determine appropriate next steps for recourse for New York State.

We thank our districts and schools for their incredible support and patience as we work through these issues.