School districts around Northeast Ohio had their annual state testing days thrown off April 10 due to issues with the Cambium testing interface.
According to Avon Local School District Superintendent Ben Hodge, the widespread interface outage affected multiple other districts throughout Northeast Ohio.
Districts hit by problems with Cambium include Avon, Avon Lake, Sheffield Lake, Elyria, North Ridgeville and Olmsted Falls, Hodge said.
With a late start scheduled in Avon Schools for April 10 and 11, a day of instruction essentially was wasted, he said.
“We went to state testing today, a lot of districts in the area, and the platform didn’t work,” Hodge said. “I know a lot of the districts started today.
“You have to strategically put your testing calendar together, because you only have so many days to test kids. I would say this is the biggest day in the state.”
Over 1,000 students across Avon Schools were disrupted April 10, Hodge said.
The district values its testing instruction days, he said, and he feels that Cambium wasted one of those days.
“It was just a lot of wasted resource and time,” Hodge said. “We organized the schedules, and it didn’t work.
“We’re held to all these accountability standards by the state, but they weren’t ready. There is not a backup plan, because there’s only one system that tests our kids in the state of Ohio.”
Hodge explained that the rescheduling process is far from easy, thanks to the number of auxiliary staff members the school has to bring in.
“(Rescheduling) is not that easy to do, because of staffing,” he said. “You have different kids with special needs that you have to test in different settings.
“We have translators coming in that we pay extra money for. All that just got blown up today.”
Cambium Assessment, based in Washington, D.C., was working to solve the issue, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
The state education department issued a statement on behalf of Cambium.
“Currently, the TA Interface and Practice TA Interface are not available,” the state education department said April 10. “Cambium Assessment is working to resolve this issue promptly.
“If your students have started a test, please continue, and complete the test. New tests cannot be initiated at this time.”
The state education department also said that the interface was back up and running, and ready for testing April 11.
Cambium Assessment did not return a phone call for comment April 10.
