Minnesota halted its
state assessments in science on Wednesday and Thursday due to a lack of
confidence "that Pearson's system will operate smoothly," Education
Commissioner Brenda Cassellius announced.
For the second time this testing
season, Minnesota's assessments were disrupted by a "distributed
denial-of-service attack," and Pearson, the global education company
that designed and is administering the state's tests, told state
officials that this was a larger and more sophisticated attack than one
that occurred on April 21.
"It is simply unacceptable and
unfair to subject students and teachers to this kind of uncertainty in a
high-stakes testing environment," Cassellius said in a statement. "I
have questions about Pearson's ability to follow through on their
assurances." The company holds a three-year contract, valued at $33.8
million, to administer Minnesota's reading, math and science proficiency tests.
Pearson also released a statement,
saying the company had worked throughout the day on Wednesday to
mitigate what it described as malicious third-party attacks, in an
effort to "minimize the disruptions and return service to normal." The
company also said it is actively working to "strengthen our defenses to
fend off these attacks," and assured the state that student data was not
targeted, or at risk.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/marketplacek12/2015/05/pearson_blames_third_party_attack_for_disrupting_minnesota_online_tests.html
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