What do Common Core and Obamacare have in common, other than the enthusiasm they engender in the White House and widespread disappointment they generate outside of it? Both programs have fatal computer glitches.
“New Hampshire-based company Measured Progress, which developed online Common Core tests used in Montana, Nevada, and North Dakota, has acknowledged a major glitch in the tests’ rollout,” Chris Neal reported in School Reform News. “Technical malfunctions, such as servers crashing during testing, resulted in only 37 percent of Nevada students being able to take their exams.”
“Meanwhile, Montana and North Dakota only managed to test 76 percent and 84 percent of students, respectively.” That would put Measured Progress in hot competition with the servers that deliver Obamacare for the dubious distinction of delivering the worst computer system to get a federal contract.
School Reform News is published by the Heartland Institute. “Though Measured Progress admitted the online test completion rate in all three states failed to meet the federal mandate of 95 percent of 3rd through 8th graders, the company denies any breach of contract,” Neal goes on to report. “Measured Progress was tasked with rolling out the Common Core-aligned Smarter Balanced assessments online for all three states.”
