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ST. PAUL, Minn., May 14, 2015 – Technical problems with the 2015 Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments were more extensive than previously thought and may invalidate the scores in some districts, according to the survey responses of more than 500 Minnesota educators.

The survey of Education Minnesota members found that 90 percent of respondents believe technical glitches affected the scores of their students. Only 6 percent of the respondents said they trusted the results would accurately reflect what their students learned this year.

“The system used to evaluate schools broke down in many districts,” said Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota. “These schools shouldn’t be punished for the failings of the state’s testing vendor. For those districts, the state should drop the high-stakes from this year’s assessments.”

The Senate’s education omnibus bill would give districts that experienced the most serious technical problems the option to set aside, for one year, the scores for purposes of teacher evaluations and school ratings.

The reading and math MCA tests are given to students in the third through eighth grades. High school sophomores take the reading MCA and juniors take the mathematics MCA. The science MCA is given to students in grades five and eight. For the first time this year, nearly all the math and reading tests were given online through a system provided by the Pearson Corp., which has $38 million contract with the state.

“It’s bad enough that a year’s worth of education is reduced to a high-stakes multiple choice test, but it’s insulting to teachers and students when the tests don’t work correctly,” Specht said. “Using these scores to measure schools make as much sense as using a broken thermometer to diagnose a fever.”

On April 21, the Minnesota Department of Education suspended MCA testing in the state after receiving reports of students having trouble logging into the testing system. On April 23, Education Minnesota asked its members to fill out an online survey about extent of the technical problems, how students reacted and whether teachers believed the glitches would affect test scores. As of May 8, 520 educators responded. On May 13, the Education Department suspended MCA testing again due to technical problems.

• 86 percent of respondents said they experienced technical difficulties.
• 91 percent said the glitches would affect scores.
• 70 percent said they don’t trust the 2015 scores will accurately reflect student learning.
• Twenty-six percent said they weren’t sure if the scores were accurate and only 6 percent said they did trust the scores.

The written descriptions of the problems showed the previously reported trouble logging into the system was the just the beginning. Teachers complained the software’s built-in calculator often didn’t work, students were randomly logged out, some students waited up to 15 minutes for the next question to load and there were many other strange and frustrating software bugs.

• “The problems have been practically endless. Teachers can’t log in, students are getting booted out while in progress, calculators aren’t working and wait times have been up to 40 minutes or more. The system is sluggish and nigh unusable.” – Media center assistant, New Ulm
• “The split screen was not wide enough for students to see entire reading passages without scrolling left to right. For students who are still tracking while they read, this was very frustrating. We are not testing technology, we are testing reading.” – Third-grade teacher, Albert Lea
• “When students tried to use the ‘magnifier’ tool their mouse arrow would shake uncontrollably and it would not work until they were able to figure out how to turn the magnifier off – which is hard to do when your mouse isn’t working.” – Fourth-grade teacher, New Prague
• “Upload errors, text to speech didn’t always work, mouse pointer became a drag hand and you couldn’t move on, needed to backward erase the screen to get the question to appear.” – Assessment administrator, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle
• “Several students were kicked out of the test in the middle of a section and had to log back in. When logging back in, the system took a great deal of time and that frustrated and angered some students. Other students were even more stressed out and some were even brought to tears.” – Fifth-grade teacher, Prior Lake – Savage.

Many educators said the testing conditions this year should make the MCA scores invalid.

• “Horrible testing conditions . . . Wasn't an authentic assessment with so many different technical issues. There is no way that any student had the opportunity to do their best work! Too many major distractions!!!!!!” - Third-grade teacher, Roseville
• “There were SO many distractions, so many glitches. ... kids were not given an appropriate testing environment. They, themselves, lost faith in the test and the process. This ‘official, all important test,’ started becoming a joking topic for them.” – Fifth-grade teacher, St. Clair
• “How can Pearson possibly measure the human element involved with this test? By dropping the ball on this, they have fomented a toxic environment of negativity toward this round (and maybe all) of testing for the remainder of the year - and perhaps beyond. There is no way possible this session of MCAs should be considered valid data.” – Education support professional, middle school, Kasson-Mantorville.
• “Anxiety and prolonged waiting causes students more stress during testing. That, coupled with ridiculously hard to navigate technology, makes the test more about how to take it than actually reflect student learning.” – Elementary-grade media specialist, Brainerd
• “How can these scores be considered valid? Some students completed the testing with no trouble while others experienced numerous difficulties trying to complete the test. How can you compare scores and base important decisions using flawed data? How do you measure the effect these Pearson glitches had on students' scores? You can't, and that's why this years' scores must be thrown out!” - Third-grade teacher, Mahnomen

Educators also described how the technical failures affected their students.

• “Frustrated them. They felt that they were being timed. Felt anxious that they wouldn’t get back into the test. Gave up and just selected random answers because they felt they didn’t have enough time to correctly answer the questions.” – Middle-school teacher, Prior Lake-Savage
• “Third graders are 8-9 years old. The longest we spend on any activity is 30-40 minutes because that is age/developmentally appropriate. 50 minutes just to log in exceeds that limit and then we want them to sit quietly and do their best work on very challenging material for another 60-90 minutes? Not age/developmentally appropriate at all. They went fast, didn’t check their work, or work out problems because they were ‘done’ with the activity before it even started!” – Third-grade teacher, Roseville.
• “Children got very impatient. When test was finally ‘up and running,’ they hurried through it, just to get done. Scores do not reflect student’s true ability.” - Fourth-grade teacher, Grand Rapids.
• “Kids get anxious when things don't work correctly. 6th graders have enough to think about without having to worry about if the test is going to work or not. My students were frustrated and skeptical - how do you get kids to be serious about a test then?” - Sixth-grade teacher, Roseville.

Education Minnesota released nearly 60 pages of data on its website, including the survey questions and summary data, the educator's descriptions of the technical problems and their perceptions of the effects on students.

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.