The Nevada Department of Education will receive nearly $1.3 million as part of a settlement with a K-12 test distributor, according to the state attorney general’s office. But it could be months before students see their scores. They could not complete the assessment, and their scores were invalidated as a result.
Advertisement
The company is being held responsible by Montana, Nevada and North Dakota for widespread technical glitches during testing this spring.
No settlement has been reached with Smarter Balanced, which developed the electronic testing materials.
Montana’s Office of Public Instruction says the problems here were different. After a delayed start date, the states experienced multiple service interruptions that kept some students from logging in and kicked other students out mid-test. School districts in the state have been left with little data on performance, thanks to the faulty rollout. “We want to understand what those numbers mean”. In an update given to Montana school districts, OPI announced it would not pay a bill for $118,650 until scores were delivered.
Measured Progress acknowledged that Nevada had an unsuccessful testing experience, but the new agreement with the state, which resolves the issue indefinitely, also points fingers at Smarter Balanced.
Nevada, another state that used Measured Progress for its Smarter Balanced tests, recently reached a almost $1.3 million settlement with the company because of similar issues, and has signed a contract with a new company to administer future tests.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau told The Associated Press in June that she intends for the state to remain in its five-year contract with the test vendor, which will end in 2019.
Advertisement
“That’s a success given the schools had the flexibility to choose whether to test after we had a series of technical issues”, Ritter Saunders said. “They’ve been quite responsive to try to get everything figured out”.
