Nevada picks new vendor after Common Core testing debacle

By Michelle Rindels, Associated Press

Published Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015 | 1:35 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015 | 3:28 p.m.

CARSON CITY — Nevada officials awarded a $51 million, four-year contract to a new test maker on Tuesday after a Common Core assessments debacle halted the mandatory online exams earlier this year.

The state Board of Examiners voted in favor of a deal with California-based CTB/McGraw-Hill, after asking a litany of questions about the company's experience dealing with large school districts, far-flung towns and high volumes of sensitive student testing data.

"It was important for me to learn about their track record," Gov. Brian Sandoval, who chairs the board, said after the meeting. "I'm satisfied with the responses they provided today."

The company prevailed over 10 other bids. Funding for the contract, which will encompass standardized tests for elementary school students and high school end-of-course exams, comes from both local and state government.

Nevada had used the New Hampshire-based vendor Measured Progress to implement federally mandated standardized testing for the last decade. But the relationship soured this spring, as a widespread computer system outage crippled testing and derailed what was supposed to be a major shift in standardized testing.

This was the first year for Nevada and many other states to move into an online test that allowed for questions to adapt in difficulty based on a student's answers, with questions aligned across states to the hotly contested Common Core standards.

A logistical nightmare ensued in classrooms in Nevada, Montana and North Dakota when students were unable to log in. It prompted all the states to offer schools a pass from testing. But it raised an unprecedented issue with student participation, as a federal mandate tied to millions of dollars in funding requires at least 95 percent of all students to test.

The outage hit Nevada the hardest with only a third of all students able to complete the exam. The state has since filed a breach-of-contract notice with Measured Progress and is negotiating a settlement; Montana and North Dakota officials also said they have discussed possible legal action against the company.

Sandoval called this spring's problems a disservice to students and parents in Nevada.

"Failure is not an option," he said Tuesday about the new contract.

CTB/McGraw-Hill officials told the panel they facilitated testing in a variety of settings, including large school districts in Pennsylvania and small, isolated ones in Alaska, and said they had never experienced a data breach.

They also said that their testing platform had been in use for five years, while the platform at the center of Nevada's recent testing troubles had been in development for just two years.