States Slow to Embrace Online Testing

Although most assessment experts agree that in the future, state tests will routinely be administered by computer, progress toward that goal has been slow, expensive, and fraught with logistical challenges.

“I don’t think any state has found it easy to go to computer-based testing,” said Stuart R. Kahl, the president and chief executive officer of Measured Progress, a Dover, N.H.-based nonprofit organization that provides assessments to school districts.

Although many districts have implemented computer-based testing at the district and school levels, using computers for statewide assessments is much more...