SALT LAKE CITY — Computer-adaptive RISE tests administered to Utah public school students in grades 3-8 resumed Monday largely without incident, a spot check of school districts indicates.
Davis School District officials reported errors with RISE science tests on Monday morning and were directed by the Utah State Board of Education staff not to test, a district official said.
State School Board spokesman Mark Peterson said that problem was due to a malfunction of the state's Utah eTranscript and Record Exchange, or UTREx, which would not allow Davis School District to access rosters needed to interface with test vendor's system.
It meant a second day of delay for Davis District after science testing was called off statewide on Friday due to a glitch.
"These issues require an extra dose of patience and understanding on the part of our teachers and students. Our educators are professionals however, and their response has been impressive — working through testing issues and focusing the students' time and effort on productive learning opportunities. We have time in the testing window to adjust and retest where needed," Davis School District's Assistant Superintendent Logan Toone wrote in an email.
Technical issues affected RISE tests administered Thursday and science testing attempted on Friday, which impacted some 18,429 students. The Minnesota-based vendor, Questar, asked Utah State Board of Education staff to halt science testing Friday morning until the issue was resolved.
The state school board has a 10-year, $44.5 million contract with Questar for RISE assessments to be given annually to students in grades 3-8 in language arts and math using online multi-stage adaptive testing. Beginning in fourth grade, science is also tested. In grades 5 and 8, writing is tested.
The contract can be terminated at any time.
RISE is an acronym for Readiness, Improvement, Success, and Empowerment. RISE was selected by the state school board as a replacement for SAGE testing.