State education leaders and officials from test provider Pearson have given little new information about the cyber-attack that disrupted the online testing system Wednesday. Problems also were reported in at least one other state where Pearson provides online tests.
Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius said Thursday that she spoke by phone Wednesday evening with a top Pearson executive and John King, a deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, about Pearson's efforts to prevent future cyber attacks.
Cassellius said Pearson officials told her the type of the attacks -- essentially attempts to slow and overwhelm the testing system -- happen "daily" to test providers and other Internet-based services.
Pearson has not said whether it will ask authorities to investigate the attacks. Cassellius said Minnesota has not directly asked the company to request an investigation.
"I've asked them to fix their system," Cassellius said. "This is Pearson's problem. I expect them to have security with the package they sold us."
Minnesota has a $38 million contract with Pearson for online proficiency tests in math, reading and science. Students in elementary, middle and high school take the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, or MCAs, each spring.
Pearson apologized in a statement Thursday for the recent problems with its online testing system.
"Our goal is to minimize disruptions for students, so we are closely monitoring the activity on our systems throughout the day and remaining vigilant for any additional issues," said Pearson, which is one of the nation's largest testing vendors and provides about 20 million tests worldwide.
"We understand the frustration around this issue, so we are working proactively to make sure students have a good testing experience," Pearson stated.
The state plans to hire an outside consultant to investigate how the computer problems might have affected student test scores. Education Department officials also were exploring whether to seek legal action against Pearson.
Teachers and some state lawmakers are pushing to allow districts to throw out this year's scores because they suspect the computer glitches have hurt student performance. They also want a refund from Pearson.
Testing supporters have opposed setting scores aside, arguing that information provided by the MCAs about school performance is too important.
Cassellius, who is taking a wait-and-see approach, said some schools have had positive testing experiences.
"I'm not ready to make those decisions, at this point, until I have more information," she said.
Schools have until Tuesday to finish administering about 30,000 science tests. Each year, a total of about 1 million tests are given to students in math, reading and science.
Cassellius said she decided not to give districts more time to administer tests. She said she was confident -- with the two extra days already added -- that students would have enough time to finish the tests.
She also said she doesn't want to interfere with other year-end activities.
"We know districts spend a lot of time on these testing calendars, and we want to be respectful of their time," Cassellius said.
©2015 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.