STAAR testing was brought to an unexpected halt in Arlington ISD on Wednesday after a district wide internet outage.
According to a statement sent out to parents by Dr. Natalie Lopez, AISD's assistant superintendent of Research and Accountability, the district-wide internet outage caused online STAAR testing to be interrupted for several hours.
Because of the outage length, students who were not finished with their online STAAR tests were unable to log back in and complete their assessment on Wednesday afternoon.
The district said students will have the opportunity to complete their STAAR test on Thursday and pick up where they left off.
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However, students will not be allowed to go back to change any answers to questions they responded on Wednesday.
AISD said it had reached out to the Texas Education Agency regarding the issue, but was informed that TEA's policy does not allow for revisions of items that have already been answered from the previous day, regardless of the reason for the delay in completion of the STAAR test.
District officials said they expected the internet outage to be fully restored by Thursday morning.
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It is unknown what exactly caused the outage.
Arlington ISD is currently in the process of improving internet connectivity in the district.
Just a few weeks ago, the district broke ground on a new fiber optic network that will improve internet access at all schools for years to come.
The network is being installed and should be complete by Fall 2023. The project is made possible with funds from a 2019 bond approved by voters.
