Will online TNReady testing go smoothly this month? 

The statewide standardized test is trying to break an embarrassing streak of failing for three straight years.

Tennessee high school online testing begins April 16.  

“If the online doesn’t work at the high school this year, it will be bad,” said Director of Schools Bobby Cox. “Last year, we had a huge issue with just the failure of it statewide. If something goes wrong this year, it won’t be on our end. We’re ready. The state has certified us as test ready. We’ve done everything on the local level to be ready to test. Everything electronically is good to go.”

On April 16, 2018, the testing system crashed, testing continually went offline, and students were not able to progress as normal. Issues continued through the end of the month.

The Tennessee Comptroller’s office, in an audit of the issues, reported said the test was, “plagued with numerous issues including login delays, slow servers, and software bugs.”

The audit also found many of the issues were primarily because Questar Assessment Inc.’s performance and updates to the system. 

“East Tennessee starts an hour ahead of us,” said Cox. “Then, all of Middle and West Tennessee come on and they start hitting all those servers. That’s when the problem starts.”

In spring 2017, about 9,400 TNReady assessment tests across the state were scored incorrectly. The scoring issue affected about 70 schools in 33 districts. 

Also, the state said about 1,700 teachers in 62 districts were affected by the state having incorrect classroom rosters. Those rosters are used to assign student tests to teachers. 

The Warren County Board of Education approved a resolution to the state in support of the ACT instead of TNReady testing.