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By Sheila Burke

After Tennessee's brand new online school assessment test, known as TNReady, crashed on Monday because of computer-networking glitches, the Department of Education has decided to administer the test moving forward with paper and pencil.

"Despite the many improvements the department has helped to make to the system in recent months and based on the events of this morning, we are not confident in the system's ability to perform consistently," said Education Commissioner Candice McQueen in an email to directors late Monday afternoon.

"In the best interest of our students and to protect instructional time, we cannot continue with Measurement Incoporated's online testing platform in its current state. Moving forward, during the 2015-16 school year TNReady will be administered via paper and pencil (for both parts)."

McQueen noted issues have continued to arise with the online platform and Monday's technical issues — on the first day of its rollout — highlighted the uncertainty around the stability of the testing platform.

As a result of the statewide shift, the state will delay and extend the Part 1 testing window.

"Measurement Incorporated is currently scheduling the printing and shipping of the paper tests and the department will share the revised testing window with districts by Thursday of this week," McQueen said in the email.

"Regardless of the medium of assessment, this new and improved test will provide schools, teachers and parents with valuable information about our students college and career readiness."

Earlier in the day, McQueen advised schools that were experiencing problems to discontinue testing. It was unclear how many schools were affected.

A Knox County Schools spokeswoman on Monday afternoon said the school system was going to allow students who were successfully able to access the assessment in the morning to finish, but were not going to start any new tests in the afternoon.

Melissa Tindell said administration officials had heard from about half of the schools that were scheduled to test Monday — and the results were mixed.

"Some were able to start the testing, some were able to finish testing, and others could not complete the testing session for today," she said. "We are continuing to gather information from schools who were scheduled to test (Monday)."

Tindell said the school system officials are optimistic they will be able to resolve any issues before Tuesday's testing.

Tindell said schools that were unable to complete the test will be able to reschedule during the test's four week window. She added the school system is also keeping its eye on the weather and will make adjustments as necessary.

Measurement Inc. is the North Carolina-based company that developed TNReady. No one responded to a telephone message left with the company.

This is the first year that students are taking an assessment test online.

TNReady assesses math and English skills for grades 3-11. It replaces the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, known as TCAP tests. Supporters say it does a better job of assessing critical-thinking skills than the previous test.

Not every school district across the state was scheduled to take the test Monday. Schools had a window through March 4 to complete the first phase of the test.

Students in the Rutherford County Schools system were forced to halt testing due to the glitches. Schools officials sent out an email to parents assuring them that the network failure had nothing to do with Rutherford County schools or its equipment.

"Our network and new computers worked as they were intended," the email to parents said.