Common Core testing resumes in Churchill County

Common Core testing is back up and running in the Churchill County School District.

Because of last week’s glitch with a computer server, the Nevada Department of Education suspended Criterion Referenced Tests for language arts and math in grades 3-8.

The problem also affected two other states, Montana and North Dakota.

Dr. Sandra Sheldon, superintendent of Churchill County schools, said the district began testing the last week of March and is hopeful that testing will be completed by the week of May 18.

“The testing window is open until the end of the school year, but we’re hoping we’ll finish testing before graduation,” Sheldon said.

Sheldon said the issues with the servers occurred when Clark County was online testing. She said the testing provider, Measured Progress, wasn’t ready for the amount of use at one time and with all of that use, the activity overloaded the server to cause the glitches.

Sheldon said with this test being a pilot test. the district might not get all of the data results from each students.

“With this being a pilot test no grades will be given and the results will not be used for the star ratings,” she said.

Lisa Bliss, district assessment coordinator, said not all students will complete the testing.

“We have to show good faith and continue with the testing,” she said. “We will receive some data on students who have taken the test. The data we receive will allow us to see progress and where we need to go. However, not all students will take the testing because of the window for the testing is getting shorter.”

Sheldon said since testing has resumed, there have been no issues.