Schools in Leon County are resuming online FCAT testing this week after students encountered log-in issues Tuesday. State Education Commissioner Pam Stewart says testing company Pearson is to blame.
Some of the students unable to complete their tests Tuesday resumed testing Wednesday with no reported difficulties. Leon County Schools spokesman Chris Petley says not all students in the district were affected by the mishap.
“It really happened on a case-by-case basis,” Petley says. “It wasn’t a very general problem. There were some students in one school or a whole school on another site. So it really is a school-by-school basis on how we responded to get them back in place to take the test.”
Petley says Leon Schools were not caught totally off-guard because they assumed the possibility of technological issues—like power-outages—when FCAT testing went online in Leon two years ago.
“When they moved to taking the test completely online our district anticipated that there may be some problems,” Petley says.
Petley says all Leon County students disrupted by Tuesday’s log-in difficulties will get the chance to take missed tests within 10 days.
