Thousands of local students affected by STAAR test issues

Thousands of local students had their STAAR testing delayed due to widespread outages with the online STAAR testing platform.

More than 7,000 Denton ISD students, about 1,400 Lewisville ISD students, more than 300 Northwest ISD students and about 100 Argyle ISD students were impacted by tech issues in the fourth grade writing, seventh grade writing and freshman English STAAR tests.

Texas education officials advised school districts to suspend the first day of STAAR testing after thousands of students showed up in person and were prevented from taking the standardized test online because of widespread technical issues across the state, according to the Texas Tribune. The issues affected districts administering the tests online and ranged from slow response times to students being unable to log in to the test.

“If your students have been able to access the test, they should continue testing. If your students have not been able to access the test, they should be dismissed from testing until the issue has been resolved,” the message from the Texas Education Agency said.

Denton ISD sent a letter to parents saying that there would be no STAAR testing on Wednesday, and the district is waiting for further instruction from the TEA about when/if the tests can be retaken or made up. Lewisville ISD wants the TEA to cancel the tests for this school year.

“It is our hope that TEA will allow our campuses and campuses across the state to move forward with completing the school year and not require the tests to be rescheduled,” a Lewisville ISD spokesperson said. “TEA’s current guidance is for school districts to use the remaining five weeks of school to find an opportunity to reschedule, so at this time, that is what we are working to accomplish.”