Computer Problems Hurting Yonkers Students Taking New York State English Tests

TESTING CHAOS: Yonkers students taking multiple-choice exams on computers had all the possible answers show up as "system error."

CAN'T GET IN: Some Yonkers schools initially couldn't log into the exams at all Wednesday morning

PARENTS UPSET: One Parent Reported That Her Child work was lost when the system temporarily crashed at her school.

The Yonkers problems were due to various glitches from Questar Assessment Inc., the Minnesota-based company that provides computer-based testing to the school district, according to school administrators.

Yonkers school union officials say it has long warned the state about being cautious in switching to computer testing.

A Yonkers union insider says, they urged school administrators not to use computerized testing after Questar said it experienced a data breach last year.

But Yonkers decided the entire district would switched to the new computer testing for the standardized exams.

Students dealt with the "system failure" issue on questions, lost notes they had typed into the exams and couldn't log into the system on Wednesday morning, according to sources close to Samantha Rosado-Ciriello, the district's union president.

There are about 12,000 students in grades 3 though 8 in Yonkers eligible to take the tests and they will not get accurate test scores, because of the computer glitches.

Yonkers Newswire / Brian Harrod Publisher - Editor

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