Local school systems respond to hack in TNReady website

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Department of Education is working to correct problems with the state’s student assessment test, and local school districts say they’ve had problems with TNReady online testing the past two days.

Haywood County Schools resumed online TNReady testing Wednesday, after a two-day delay due to computer issues statewide.

Superintendent Joey Hassell says students had trouble logging in and submitting their tests.

“We’re just trying to troubleshoot and problem-solve and work through it as best we can,” Hassell said.

The Jackson-Madison County School System says their students had similar issues Tuesday.

“It’s frustrating because our teachers work so hard all year to prepare their students,” JMCSS Chief Academic Officer Jared Myracle said.

The state says it appears someone deliberately attacked the computer system of the company that administers the TNReady test.

Because of all these issues, the state Education Commissioner says they decided to extend the deadline for online testing.

The state says tens of thousands of students successfully used the online testing system Wednesday, with more than 85,000 test sessions completed or in progress.

Jackson-Madison County Schools reported no issues as of Wednesday morning.

“Hopefully things are smoothing out and we can finish the next couple of weeks without these major errors,” Myracle said.

Hassell says it’s not fair to students to factor in these TNReady scores when determining grades.

“We’re not opposed to testing and we think the testing aligned to the state standards is a great thing. We just need it to work,” Hassell said.

The state says student data was not compromised.

One state lawmaker says he filed an amendment that would require tests to be taken on paper. He says another amendment would make sure that this year’s test scores also don’t count against teachers.