NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Local students taking state-required tests today will have their tests scrapped and will need to start again another day.
New Hanover County Schools Superintendent Chris Barnes announced Wednesday afternoon he suspended End-of-Grade and End-of-Course after state-run software prevented students from completing the exams.
The testing affects grades 3 through 12, though mostly elementary and middle school students. State exams are required to be administrated online.
NHCS says the disruption occurred around 9:30 a.m. when the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction reported issues with its software. This was a widespread issue affecting districts across North Carolina. After an hour, some schools in the state could resume testing after confirming that test security remained intact. However, ongoing technical problems continued to affect students’ ability to resume testing.
“After seeing the negative impact on our students, I decided to suspend all testing for the remainder of the day,” Barnes said in a press release. “My priority is always going to be about students and their well-being. It is also important to provide a calm, supportive testing environment for our students. It’s not fair for a state issue that we have no control over to create unnecessary stress and frustration for students and families.”
NHCS said it will send out an updated testing schedule as soon as possible.
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