RPS will not administer MCA tests due to technology challenges

By KAALTV

Courtesy: Rochester Public Schools

(ABC 6 News) – Rochester Public Schools announced on Monday that due to the recent cyber incident, it will not be able to conduct Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) testing in early May.

The reasons RPS gave for the decision include:

Passwords would need to be reset on more than 10,000 student devices. While this process is underway, RPS could not guarantee reaching every student device successfully in the available time.
In addition to password resets, all student and proctor devices require installation of testing software to successfully conduct testing for students.
Certain tests require the ability to stream video. Streaming video is a high bandwidth activity at a time that its wireless internet services are running at reduced capacity.
State technology and regulation does not allow the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to extend the testing window for any districts within the state.
RPS is not able to administer paper tests as MDE and its contractor are unable to make available the volume of paper tests required.

On April 6, RPS discovered “irregular activity” on its network saying its technology staff responded immediately shutting down district-wide internet in order to review and address the issue. RPS even canceled classes on Monday, April 10.

RPS slowly integrated more technology into their classrooms each day following the cyber incident.

RPS said it is working with MDE to understand what this will mean for students, and will share an update as soon as it is available.