More Problems With the STAAR Test? Officials Call Today’s Glitch “minor”

Students taking the online version of the high-stakes STAAR on Tuesday were temporarily kicked out of a software program that runs the test midway through their testing.Texas Education Agency spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said there was a temporary glitch that was "very minor." More details are unavailable at this time.Some teachers reported that students' work appeared to be saved after they were able to log back into the testing software.They worried that this year would be a repeat of a 2016 debacle where statewide computer issues affected 14,420 tests when students were locked out of STAAR software or had their answers erased. Education Commissioner Mike Morath ended up scraping those results for fifth and eighth graders. The testing snafus were so widespread two years ago -- including delivery problems, scoring errors and even test questions with no right answers -- that the state's vendor ETS ended up paying a hefty fine and had to amp up its efforts to ensure things went smoothly in the future.This story will be updated throughout the day.  Continue reading...