April 2, 2019
Dear Parent/Guardian:
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of a technical issue with part one of the Grades 3-8 English Language Arts (ELA) New York State Assessment, which took place today.
This year, the Westmoreland Central School District, like other schools across the state, volunteered to administer the assessment using computers, or computer-based testing (CBT). At Westmoreland, only students in grades 6-8 are participating in computer-based testing. Students in grades 3-5 are taking a paper-based assessment.
Please know a technical issue occurred with the computer-based testing, affecting students in grades 6-8. This issue was experienced statewide and is due to a serious “glitch” at the state level. The Westmoreland Central School District is not responsible for the glitch and did not have any way to resolve it.
As a result, the State Education Department (SED) has cancelled all computer-based testing for tomorrow, Wednesday, April 3, 2019. Paper-based testing will proceed as scheduled. This means there will be no testing for students in grades 6-8, but part two testing will continue for students in grades 3-5 here at Westmoreland.
While SED is working to resolve the technical issue as quickly as possible, we are still waiting for the issue to be fixed and to determine when students in grades 6-8 will be able to resume testing. We are also waiting for more information on how to resolve possible outstanding issues with the computer-based testing. As soon as a new testing date is established, it will be communicated to you.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, please contact Kevin Healy, Director of Pupil Personnel Services/Curriculum K-12, at (315) 557-2697.
Sincerely,
Rocco Migliori
Superintendent of Schools