St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Minnesota Department of Education has announced a settlement with the company that was hired to administer the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments in April.

The standardized testing program was disrupted by technical glitches, including server delays and malicious third-party “distributed denial of service” attacks. The settlement calls for the Pearson company to subtract $1 million from the contract price and provide nearly $4.7 million worth of additional services and support for school districts at no cost to the state.

"The disruptions experienced by students and teachers this spring were simply unacceptable," said Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. "Pearson has been working with us in good faith to arrive at this significant settlement that provides us with assurances, and recognizes the magnitude of the impacts that the failures had on the state. This settlement also provides in-kind services that can help improve student outcomes statewide."

Pearson also move Minnesota’s testing to the firm’s newer cloud-based testing platform, which has additional security and data controls designed to make it more stable and resistant to third-party attacks.

 

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