At Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools, standardized testing this month — never an enjoyable or soothing experience — was even worse than usual.
The test, a new system called Cognia, appeared rife with technical issues, and some classes struggled to sit for the test at all, according to Superintendent Libby Bonesteel. The district’s sixth-graders were simply unable to log in to the computer-based testing program last week, forcing administrators to find new testing dates. And multiple fifth-grade students were repeatedly and inexplicably ejected from the program, she said, to the point where some began to cry.
“They got incredibly frustrated, and some were in tears around it,” Bonesteel said.
Frustrations over the rollout of the Cognia standardized test are not limited to Montpelier Roxbury. Last week, the state’s organizations of superintendents, principals, teachers and school boards expressed concerns that the test rollout was becoming a mess.
The organizations were “seriously concerned with the administration of the test, which begins this week, and the affirmative harm to students and staff that is likely to occur,” leaders wrote in an April 11 letter to the state’s top education official.
“The bottom line is students and schools should not be penalized for results of a test with questionable validity that has been hastily implemented,” the groups wrote.
A federal mandate
Schools across the U.S. are required to administer a series of annual standardized tests to students in elementary, middle and high schools.
Students must take annual standardized tests in language arts and mathematics in grades three through eight, as well as once in grades 10 to 12. Schools must also administer science tests three times between grades three and 12.
Vermont previously contracted with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), an organization of public education entities, to administer tests. In October, Vermont announced that it was contracting with Cognia, a Georgia-based accreditation and testing nonprofit, to provide standardized testing after the expiration of the Smarter Balanced contract.
In an Oct. 5 press release announcing the switch, state education officials touted Cognia’s focus on equity.
“Cognia’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion in the development and implementation of assessments aligns with Vermont’s values, and the accessibility and user experience of their testing resources will make working with the assessments easier for students, families and educators,” then-Secretary of Education Dan French said in the release.
But the rollout of the test has left school administrators concerned that Cognia is not living up to those promises.
‘No way they’re going to try to pull this off’
Delays in the state contracting process meant that the test rollout did not start until March, education groups said in their letter — meaning administrators had to scramble to learn a new testing program just weeks before administering it.
Doug Kussius, the principal at White River School in White River Junction, said he had not expected the Agency of Education to administer the tests on such a short timeframe.
“I would expect, like, if we were going to get the test next year, we’d be thinking about it now,” he said. Even through December, Kussius said, he had told staff that the assessment would likely be put on hold.
“I’m like, ‘No, don’t worry about it, there’s no information on it, nothing’s coming out, there’s no way they’re going to try to pull this off. Just don’t worry about it, it’s not going to happen,’” he said. “And then in January, they were like, ‘No, this is definitely going to happen.’”
That fueled concerns that there was not enough technical or administrative support to effectively conduct the exams.
Administrators struggled to implement accommodations, like text-to-speech, for students with disabilities. Students were faced with repeated error messages, some of which would end test sessions abruptly. And one technical problem briefly allowed school officials to see confidential student information from other districts around the state.
Lindsey Hedges, a spokesperson for the Agency of Education, said in an email last week that the problem was “swiftly corrected by the contractor” and that student information was never released to the public.
Gwen Carmolli, the director of curriculum and instruction at the Colchester School District and president of the Vermont Curriculum Leaders Association, attributed the technical problems to the state’s short rollout timeline.
“It’s been rocky,” she said.
At Colchester High School, the testing began with just two classes totaling 40 students, Carmolli said. Even so, the school needed to pull six extra staffers away from their normal duties to successfully administer the assessments.
“It’s taking a village to get it rolling,” she said. “And I’ve been lucky enough to be able to get it rolling.”
Chris Hennessey, superintendent of the Barre Unified Union School District, said he feared the hasty implementation of the test would put school administrators in a tricky position.
On one hand, Hennessey said, district officials could be forced to defend the use of standardized testing to parents who watched their kids struggle with the haphazard rollout of the assessments.
“You’ve got families who just don’t believe in standardized testing, and don’t feel comfortable with their kids taking them, for the very reasons that we’re seeing right now,” he said.
But on the other hand, he said, administrators might have to explain low test scores to school board members and the general public, who could see them as a sign of academic shortcomings.
“It’s a really tough situation,” he said.
‘Full responsibility’
In their April 11 letter, the educational organizations asked the state to “indicate to the public and the entire education community that this year should be regarded as an implementation pilot.”
In a memo the following day, interim Secretary of Education Heather Bouchey acknowledged frustrations with the testing rollout.
The state’s contracting process “was significantly held up in an extended, and unanticipated, process,” Bouchey wrote. “The Agency of Education (AOE) takes full responsibility for the associated delay in the Cognia rollout and its impact on the training timeline for the field.”
It’s unclear what led to that delay. Spokespeople for the Agency of Education did not respond to a request for an interview and emailed questions.
Bouchey stepped into the interim position this month, after French left for a job with an education administrators nonprofit.
The agency is trying to get districts up to speed by hosting regular tech support meetings, making staff available to answer questions, and “distributing training documents and materials as speedily as possible,” Bouchey wrote.
State officials are also adding a two-week makeup testing window for districts that do not manage to finish all the testing by the end of May.
But, Bouchey said, the state is bound by federal law to administer annual standardized tests, meaning that the Cognia assessment cannot be treated as a pilot.
“We are simply asking everyone to do their best,” she wrote.
