AUGUSTA, Maine - Maine education officials have tentatively selected a New Hampshire company to administer next year's state achievement test online. Measured Progress Incorporated ran into technological glitches in several states last spring. But the company says it's confident it won't experience the same kind of trouble here in Maine.
Martin Borg, Measured Progress's CEO, says those states had one thing in common: a different kind of testing system, "the Smarter Balanced Open Source System."
In North Dakota, Montana and Nevada, Measured Progress was a subcontractor that administered the Smarter Balanced test. But there were problems. In August, Measured Progress agreed to pay the state of Nevada $1.3 million after server failures and other technical issues marred the state's first year of online testing.
Montana and North Dakota faced similar problems. So did Maine. It's a big reason why the Legislature severed the state's contract with Smarter Balanced.
Borg says he's confident Maine won't experience the same kind of problems next spring because Measured Progress is using a different system, one called e-Metric. "They've been used in Oklahoma and New Mexico and we've had an utterly reliable experience and a long and trusted relationship with the organization," he says.
In selecting a new test provider, the Maine Department of Education required all bidders to disclose any problems they've had with contracts in other states. Charlene Tucker is the department's head of assessment and accountability.
"On our review team, we had a technology expert," Tucker says, "and he sort of helped us sort through the issues that folks described in their proposals and their implications for us."
Tucker says she is confident that testing will go better next spring now that Smarter Balanced is no longer in the picture. But like it was last year, Maine's new test will be an online exam. And that continues to worry some educators.
"If they're starting from scratch to do an online test this late in the season, that's late to do," says Lois Kilbey-Chesley, president of the Maine Education Association, the union representing the state's public school teachers.
Kilbey-Chesley says last spring's problems - unclear instructions, crashing computers and lost work - were disruptive and difficult for students and teachers. "We have some concerns that that might happen again. So we're trying to make sure - we're trying to look into it now, before we put our support behind this Measured Progress test - to make sure that we have a lot of answers to the questions we have."
Those companies that bid unsuccessfully for the Maine contract have 15 days to appeal the state's decision. Education officials, meantime, still have to negotiate the details of a final contract with Measured Progress.