Jenks To Resume State Testing After Computer Glitch

There was a massive disruption to online state testing Monday for more than 8,000 students across Oklahoma, including thousands in Green Country. This is the second year in a row a glitch has disrupted the mandatory tests.

There were 8,100 students kicked off their computers over and over on Monday. Some finished, but many did not, before the state suspended testing until the glitch was solved.

4/21/2014 Related Story: Broken Arrow Officials Blame Superintendent, Vendor For Testing Failure

Monday night, the state Department of Education said they will not renew the contract with McGraw Hill, the testing vendor. But that doesn't mean parents, students and teachers feel any better about what happened.

"We were all, I guess a little nervous for the test because we've all been preparing for a long time, for a couple weeks," said Sanjeev Musuvathy.

Musuvathy, a 7th grader, sat in a classroom on Monday, staring at the ten inch screen in front of him, ready for the English test he studied so hard for. Instead he faced problem after problem.

"Every couple questions it would kick you off the program you would have to then go back to the beginning, of like the computer start up, and restart the whole thing," Musuvathy said.

The problem, according to the state Department of Education, was a server issue with provider McGraw-Hill.

"These problems are absolutely unacceptable that is why we are exploring any and all options as for where we go from here," said State Superintendent Janet Barresi.

But others, like Jenks Middle School Principal Rob Miller, want the finger pointing to stop and accountability to start. Because, he said, it's the children that matter and there is no excuse for what happened.

"There was a lot of sitting around and waiting. A lot of frustration building, you could feel the stress in the room from all these students who've been prepping, and working hard for the last few weeks trying to get ready for this day," Miller said. The law tells us that if a student doesn't score proficient we have to provide them remediation next year, so these scores are high stakes for these kids."

"I hope that everybody that got kicked out, at least a couple times, they get to redo it cause it wasn't really fair," Musuvathy said.

For Tuesday at Jenks Middle School, they said testing will continue since the glitch is apparently fixed and they are on such a tight schedule.