State Assessment Testing this past week has not been a pleasant experience in school districts across Kansas.

Dr. Beth Hudson, USD 475 Associate Superintendent, said that there were problems reported in the District on Wednesday.

“We had one Principal after another that was emailing to say that they were concerned; so when it gets to be that widespread we know that it’s probably not a [USD 475] District issue,” said Hudson.

As Principals contacted District Officials, Hudson noted they began to receive emails from the State Department warning of the issues.

“In some cases, we had students who just finished a test – the teacher even checked to see that they had completed the test – and then they were showing no results,” said Hudson. “We’re hoping that this means a student doesn’t have to go back and take the test because that is a nightmare, especially for a student who struggles.”

The test allows local educators to assess how students are performing in comparison to others across the state.

“The significance [of the test] has been downplayed a little bit from the State Department just to take some pressure off the Districts; but [the tests] are still good measures for us, and we want our students to perform well on them,” said Hudson.

Hudson noted that in 2014 issues with the State Test were so severe that results were not usable or available to District officials and administrators.

The Center for Educational Testing and Evaluation at the University of Kansas is the entity contracted by the State Education Department to host the tests. The Kansas Interactive Testing Engine, the center’s technology arm, says that the problem is with the servers and not the tests.