70 Humble ISD students affected by STAAR technical issues

The tests lost during the 2015-16 school year mainly affected students who needed accommodations, such as those in Special Education or English Language Learners. However, some high school students were affected because districts were afforded the opportunity to test completely online for English I and II end-of-course exams, TEA spokesperson Lauren Callahan said.

After about 70 students experienced problems with the online tests last school year, HISD did not require students to retest if ETS was unable to resolve the problem that day, Director of Public Communications Jamie Mount said.

“Humble ISD faced numerous challenges related to state testing,” Mount said. “District officials had to be in frequent communication with ETS and TEA throughout the spring and summer.  It was not a smooth, turn-key process and required much greater oversight by Humble ISD administrators than in prior years.”

ETS was awarded a four-year contract for the administration of STAAR tests for grades 3–8 and high school STAAR End-of-Course exams in 2015. Callahan said the vendor would continue administering the test for the foreseeable future, and no decisions have been made to replace ETS as the test administrator.