Thousands of students across Minnesota could not take the online state math assessment they spent much of the school year preparing for because of a technology failure last week.
A computer problem at testing contractor American Institutes of Research, or AIR, prevented students from beginning or completing the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments online, said Charlene Briner, the chief of staff for the Minnesota education department.
The contractor also provides online testing services to Delaware, Hawaii, and Oregon, but Minnesota is its largest client.
Jon Cohen, the director of assessment for the AIR, said servers that process tests experienced two “slowdowns” as 15,000 students tried to access the system.
About 9,000 students were able to complete the tests, he said.
