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MPR News Staff

MN suspends student testing after latest online 'attack'

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Updated 5 p.m. | Posted 1:54 p.m.

Minnesota education officials on Wednesday were forced again to suspend statewide student testing after the state's testing contractor reported an online "attack."

Officials initially said the suspension of testing on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments in science would last only the remainder of Wednesday. Later in the afternoon, however, the department said it would also suspend testing on Thursday.

It's another blow to the system, which was forced to put student testing on hold in late April following similar technical problems tied to Pearson, the testing vendor.

News of the latest attack led the head of the state teachers union to call on Minnesota to toss out the results of Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments testing for 2015.

"The technical problems with this year's MCAs are way more extensive than we previously thought," said Education Minnesota President Denise Specht. "They're unreliable and it's time to set these scores aside."

Pearson's system on Wednesday suffered a "denial of service attack, which means that the system is being intentionally disrupted by an outside source," the Education Department said in a statement.

The attack was similar to what occurred on April 21, but Pearson reports that this was a larger and more sophisticated attack, the department added. Districts Wednesday reported students experiencing serious delays.

"It is simply unacceptable and unfair to subject students and teachers to this kind of uncertainty in a high-stakes testing environment," Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius said in a statement.

"After the April 21 suspension, Pearson added additional security measures to prevent this type of disruption," she added. "Given the need to suspend testing today, I have questions about Pearson's ability to follow through on their assurances."

By late Wednesday, the department said it decided to put a hold on Thursday testing because officials weren't confident that Pearson's operation would run smoothly.

Pearson is in the first year of a three-year, $33.8 million contract to provide testing services to Minnesota.

The department said it will update districts Thursday on next steps.