Peoria Public Schools’ annual MAP testing this month was bedeviled with computer glitches.
From Sept. 8 to Sept. 14th, the company that makes the test was plagued with repeated Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks, sometimes multiple times a day.
As a result, District 150 schools had to extend the testing period, which was supposed to end Sept. 18, to Sept. 30th.
District 150’s Director of Technology Michelle Seipel says when students were logged into the online program, they experienced frozen screens or the inability to move on to the next question.
“So if there are any issues with the internet or with the NWEA right at that time that the student is testing, then unfortunately they will have an interruption in the test,” Seipel said.
Some students got kicked out of the testing program completely.
North West Evaluation Association, the company that makes the test, says they don’t know the hackers’ motivation for the attacks, but they’ve filed reports with federal and state law enforcement.
District 150 annually pays NWEA $167,500 dollars to administer the test.
Superintendent Sharon Kherat says the District intends to talk with the company about possible reimbursement for the lost school days.
NWEA says the cyber attacks also affected other school districts.
The District has been administering the MAP tests for the past seven years, spokesman Chris Coplan said. This was the first year the test was given online. The test is used to measure student and teacher progress by the end of the school year.
Superintendent Sharon Kherat says the outages will not have any negative impact on teachers -- except for the loss of school time. Kherat says she hopes things will run more smoothly for the end-of-the-year assessments, come springtime.
NWEA says the disruptions have nothing to do with their programs or software. The company says it was caused by a quote “malicious attacker."