TN Department of @Educa?on TNReady Update Wednesday, April 18, 2018 Education Commissioner Dr. Candice McQueen Thank you to our teachers and students for their patience and flexibility  I want to personally apologize to all teachers, students, parents, and district and school staff who have been handling these issues with patience and a positive attitude.  We were completely devastated when we heard that districts were again having technical issues yesterday.  While the issues we have experienced over the past two days were separate in origin, they are equally frustrating.  All of us want test administration to be successful.  We share your concerns about what happened as well as your determination to do what we can to ensure it does not happen again. 2 Context for this week  We have been phasing into online for over two years.  We have successfully passed many proof points, including having 120,000 high school students take TNReady online last fall. – Additionally, 24 districts went online successfully last spring.  Since last summer, our districts have been preparing technologically for this spring administration, and we worked closely with our vendor to proactively solve for risks and test the Nextera platform.  We have also been planning with districts and schools on handling issues that may occur during the testing window – recognizing that the nature of the online environment means we need to prepare for any possibility. 3 What happened on Monday  On Monday, some students in some districts had challenges logging into Nextera, the online testing platform.  We communicated with districts shortly before 9 a.m. CT that we were aware of the issue, and I provided an update to all directors of schools within the hour.  At that time, Questar was in the process of implementing a fix. We confirmed shortly before 10:30 a.m. with directors of schools that the issue was resolved. Students were able to log in normally, and testing resumed. 4 What happened on Monday  After the fix was implemented, more than 20,000 students successfully started and/or completed their TNReady exam.  Additionally, the platform worked as expected in maintaining students’ progress and allowing students to finish even with some log-in issues.  In total, about 33,000 students successfully took a TNReady exam on Monday including those who completed exams in the morning prior to or during the login issue. 5 What happened on Monday  The issue was NOT related to: – – – – – Volume of student testers Server issues The test delivery system – Nextera – itself Any network or broadband performance Any district action or preparation step  This issue was also not one that the TDOE could have seen ahead of the testing window opening.  The issue was related to a conflict between the Classroom Assessment Builder (CAB) and the test delivery system, which previously shared the same log-in system. This conflict immediately caused unacceptable log-in delays for some students. The issue has been resolved. 6 What happened on Tuesday  Yesterday, we experienced a different challenge: a traffic pattern that was consistent with an online attack  Questar and TDOE determined to take the log-in systems off line until we could be sure we had a safe and effective solution in place. Students already testing were in most cases able to finish. In other cases, students were not able to log on or submit tests for approximately three hours in the morning.  Questar made immediate configuration changes to the system aimed at deflecting a possible repeat. 7 What happened on Tuesday  Questar is continuing to investigate the cause of Tuesday’s issue, but initial findings indicate it is external to the online delivery platform and was consistent with what would be considered a cyber attack.  The investigation includes the engagement of a third party firm that specializes in incident response. Findings will be shared upon conclusion. 8 What happened on Tuesday  To reiterate what we have shared earlier, there is absolutely no evidence that student data or information has been compromised.  The testing program performed as designed to mask and protect student information.  The software is designed to save students’ work locally on their machine or device, so if their testing session was disrupted, they can resume and submit their answers. We supported our testing coordinators on that step yesterday and have put out communications regarding any recovery process needed. 9 We have extended the testing window  The testing window is three weeks long, and districts and schools decide when they will schedule tests within that window.  About 650,000 students will take TNReady this year, and over 300,000 students will test online.  We have extended the online testing window until Wednesday, May 9 – three days beyond the originally communicated date. 10 Students are successfully testing online  Each day, some districts decided to pause testing, and others continued. Each afternoon, after the issue was resolved, several thousand students successfully tested on the platform.  In total, more than 90,000 students completed a TNReady exam yesterday, including those who completed exams in the morning prior to the issue.  In the first two days of testing about 120,000 test sessions have been successfully completed. 11 Preventing future issues with online testing  Cyber-security attacks are one of the biggest challenges faced today across many industry sectors.  We saw yesterday that with professional protocols in place we can protect ourselves from potential cybercriminals, protect our valuable data and overcome possible attacks in relatively short order.  The technology industry is always developing new and improved strategies to combat this threat. The Tennessee Department of Education and its partners are continuously reviewing and improving our defense strategies. 12 We need to keep moving forward  Paper can actually present worse logistical challenges: it is more expensive; can be more time consuming in terms of preparation before, during, and after testing; and is more burdensome in terms of packing and delivery.  Because scanning is also involved as an additional step, additional time for scoring is also introduced, ultimately delaying the availability of results.  We are also one of only 10 states that have not transitioned fully to online. We need to keep moving forward as online is logistically easier and allows us to return results faster.  In our current industry and workplaces, employees are expected to show what they know using technology. This is the world we must prepare our students for. 13 We need to keep moving forward  We have been providing continuous, real-time updates to directors of schools, our education community, and the public to be transparent about what is happening. Our districts have also done an excellent job of communicating with their communities in the midst of challenging circumstances.  We will continue to both problem-solve with our vendor and our schools and share updates as we have them. 14 Our students will be successful  TNReady data is incredibly helpful for us to know how our students are doing based on Tennessee’s academic expectations.  We believe our students will successfully take their TNReady exam this spring and again provide us with this key checkpoint. 15