Central began the U.S. History EOC for the first time ever on computers on February 8th, 2016. Many had anticipated that the testing would work, but then the new system took a turn for the worse.

Mr. Kevin Parsons, English teacher and the head of online testing for Central, gave some information to clarify what actually happened to the testing. At about 9:20 A.M., the server that hosts the testing for the entire state crashed.

“We have not been given any details about the crash, and strangely, the crash didn’t kick everyone out at once. Most of Central’s students were able to successfully finish the U.S. History End of Course Exam on Monday,” informed Parsons.

All of the state test for the rest of the year will be on paper. Any U.S. History student that was not able to finish the online test will have to start the test from the beginning, but luckily, all students who finished will not have to retake the exam.

Mrs. Peggy Moyer, Algebra 2 teacher at Central, was one of the test adminsitrators.

“Our first test we ran went fine, but [it] started at 7:30 [which was] earlier than most. [The test] went well until the state server failed,” stated Moyer.

Most teachers argued to keep the paper test so they would not have to test twice, but the state decided to try the online tests instead. Several teachers thought that the glitch came from the Hamilton County School District, but it actually came from the state.

Paper tests will be given to all of the students not only at Central, but in all public schools across Tennessee taking EOC’s this year.A relief for most students is that they will only have to take the EOC one time. The state is working on the issues to better prepare the server for testing in the 2016-2017 school year.