New York students faced massive testing hiccups Wednesday due to a “widespread failure” of the state Education Department’s pricey exam tech — which experienced a similar glitch last year, The Post has learned.
Questar, the state’s assessment portal, faced “technical challenges” across school districts, pausing the second day of the New York State English Language Arts exam, the New York State Education Department said.
Officials from the SED later advised schools to postpone any testing scheduled for Thursday, with reschedule dates “to be shared in the near future.”
A similar glitch was reported last year affecting the same platform over multiple days – after which families were “assured that the system would be stabilized to prevent exactly this kind of breakdown,” New York City-based Zeta Charter Schools founder and CEO Emily A. Kim told The Post.
“The current system is failing, creating unnecessary challenges for students, teachers and administrators,” Kim fumed, adding that her students Wednesday faced “repeated login failures, uncertainty and disruption.
“This experience creates stress, breaks momentum, and inevitably affects how students show up when testing is rescheduled.”
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers union, also ripped state education officials over the failure.
“Once again, students and educators were left scrambling because the state failed in its responsibility to hold its vendors and consultants accountable,” Mulgrew said in a statement. “The UFT is talking with state officials, so children and school communities are not penalized for a mess others made.”
LaMae de Jongh, provost of Success Academy Charter Schools, added: “Today’s test disruption is more than just a technical issue; it is a profound disservice to the students statewide who arrived ready to excel.”
“We must be able to trust NYSED and the vendors they employ,” de Jongh added. “Systemic failures should never come at the expense of our students’ hard work.”
The SED said that, upon learning of the glitch, it contacted vendor NWEA to “expeditiously address the issue,” a department spokesperson argued.
More than 116,000 students were “tested without error this morning, with thousands more expected to complete testing later today,” the rep noted.
“The issue appears to be impacting a limited number of users of the Grades 3-8 Computer-Based Testing System, across select schools and districts statewide,” spokesperson JP O’Hare said.
“We have advised impacted schools that they may briefly pause testing or delay to another day within the testing window, which expires May 15, 2026.”
But Kim argued that NWEA, which has a $20 million contract with the education department set to expire in November, failed to address concerns directly Wednesday morning – leaving nearly 2,000 Zeta Charters students in the dark.
“We are calling on NYSED and its testing vendor NWEA to provide immediate transparency about what went wrong, and what concrete steps will be taken to ensure that widespread platform failure does not happen again,” Kim said.
“Repeat system failures reflect state test administration’s inadequate preparation, planning, and platform testing, and the outages impose unacceptable impacts on kids in a high-stakes testing environment mandated by the state,” she added.
“Our students deserve a testing experience reflecting the same level of preparation, care, and accountability we ask of them.”
