For more information, contact:
Chris Williams
651-292-4816 (work)
651-247-5539 (cell)

Megan Boldt
651-292-4818 (work)
651-245-9163 (cell)

ST. PAUL, Minn., May 13, 2015 –Education Minnesota President Denise Specht released the following statement in response to the suspension of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments on Wednesday and to Sen. Charles Wiger’s call to permit districts to set aside this year’s scores for school ratings.

“The MCA tests have been nothing but trouble this year, so Wednesday’s problems felt like Groundhog Day for many teachers,” Specht said. “Hundreds of educators have reported problems with the 2015 MCAs. It’s just day after day after day of glitches, delays and frustration.”

Specht said Education Minnesota supports language approved by the Senate to mitigate the damage from the 2015 MCAs, including compensating districts that experienced an interruption of service during the testing period and giving districts the flexibility to set aside the test scores for use in ratings of teachers and schools.

“The federal government requires educators, students and parents to work all year toward these tests, but that effort has been wasted by technical failures,” Specht said. “It’s a flawed system, flawed technology and now we’re stuck with flawed data.”

Education Minnesota is gathering signatures on a petition calling for the state’s testing vendor, Pearson Education, to refund the $12.5 million it received for this year’s MCA tests. Read the petition.

Minnesota educators are tweeting about testing problems using the hashtags #NoRichesForGlitches and #testfail.

About Education Minnesota

Education Minnesota represents 70,000 professionals working together for excellence in education for all students. Education Minnesota’s members include teachers and education support professionals in Minnesota’s public school districts, faculty members at Minnesota’s community and technical colleges and University of Minnesota campuses in Duluth and Crookston, retired educators and student teachers. Education Minnesota is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and AFL-CIO.