The English 1 STAAR online testing scheduled for April 6 was cancelled for Keller ISD students after a state-wide issue with connecting to testing servers.
According to the Texas Tribune, Texas education officials told districts to cancel the first day of testing due to technical issues across the state.
Students taking the paper-based tests will continue to test.
Keller ISD acknowledged the technology issues in an e-mail to parents and employees around 9:30 a.m. The final decision to cancel testing was announced via the loudspeaker and in an e-mail to TCHS staff around 11:00 a.m.
An e-mail from the District communicated additional details at 11:40:
Keller ISD Families and Employees,
We have been informed that connectivity issues related to STAAR online exams have not been resolved by Educational Testing Services (ETS), the administrator of the exams, and Keller ISD has decided to stop online testing for the day.
Students who are testing on paper will continue testing, as planned.
Parents of remote students who attended campus today for the sole purpose of testing online may pick up their students early. Elementary students can be picked up beginning at 1:30 p.m. and secondary students may be picked up at 2:30 p.m. If necessary, students may remain on campus until the end of the school day.
Due to uncertainty with ETS, Keller ISD will not conduct online testing on Wednesday, April 7. District administrators are currently discussing how to proceed for the remainder of the week, and those details will be shared when they have been finalized.
Since Timber Creek has active paper testing locations, students in the online testing areas will continue to be held in their testing rooms until individual rooms are dismissed around 2:30 p.m. Lunches will be served in each room.
UPDATE April 7: TCHS will continue to test the English 2 EOC on April 8 and has rescheduled online testers from English 1 to be here Friday, April 9. Both days will be asynchronous for non-testers. Find more information here: https://www.timbercreektalon.com/2021/04/eyntka-english-1-and-2-spring-2021-staar-eoc-tests/