[K12OSN] State Testing

[cliebow at midmaine.com]

Maine has state testing online with proprietary software that is an
abysmal failure as well..chuck

> Kentucky tried to pilot a program last year. Apparently the bandwidth
> was way too high. Which only goes to show you that the program was
> written really badly.
>
> What really annoys me is that some of my brightest students and I
> could write a program that would handle most of what they want in a
> summer. Just create a Java app that downloads questions and uploads
> answers when students need them (so everyone's not hitting the server
> at the same time). The only challenging part is making sure that
> students can't quit the program or otherwise use another program
> while they're testing.
>
> And how many millions are we spending on stuff that a developer would
> do for  less than $50k and could be released as open source so that
> all the states could then use it?
>
> Todd
>
> On Feb 26, 2006, at 8:08 PM, Doug Simpson wrote:
>
>> All I have to say is "Good Luck!"
>>
>> We have state testing here for some of our programs and it is
>> attempted to be administered online.
>>
>> We have yet to have one work reliably and efficiently yet and we
>> have been doing it for several years already.
>>
>> doug
>>
>>
>> Ken Grant wrote:
>>
>>> Hello All:
>>>
>>> 	This may or may not be the best place to address this issue, but I
>>> figure there are enough tech/educational experts here that someone is
>>> bound to have encountered it.
>>>
>>> 	My problem: Our state, Wyoming, is converting all standardized
>>> testing
>>> for compliance with the "No Child Left Behind" law to computers.
>>> Starting in about six weeks, children in grades 3-8, and grade 11,
>>> will
>>> be taking our state test online.  The test is designed by the
>>> state but
>>> admisistered through Harcourt Assessment.  To ensure that students do
>>> not have access to other parts of the computer they are working
>>> on, all
>>> testing must be done with a "secure browser." To get the browser to
>>> be secure a program called SiteKiosk is used. And you guessed
>>> it, it only runs on Windows and sometimes Macs.
>>>
>>> 	At this point the state is still dealing with many tech issues,
>>> including getting SiteKiosk to run on Macs.  I've been assured by
>>> people at the state level and at Harcourt Assessment that no
>>> testing has
>>> been done with Linux.  Since K12LTSP is being used by school
>>> districts
>>> across the nation, this seems to me to be a terrible oversight.
>>>
>>> 	I realize that the bigger school districts have the funding for
>>> Windows
>>> systems; however, we are a small Catholic school with very little
>>> resources to invest in IT.  K12LTSP is the only way we can get
>>> computers
>>> in the classroom.
>>> 	All that said, have any of you been faced with a similar issue?  If
>>> so, how have you dealt with it?  How many schools with K12LTSP are
>>> using
>>> it as their only platform?
>>>
>>> 	I plan to make as much noise as possible with both the state and
>>> with
>>> Harcourt so that this situation can be corrected, but in the meantime
>>> any ideas on how to get SiteKiosk to run on Linux would be great.
>>> Does
>>> anyone know if a Linux-based program exsists to make a  browser
>>> secure?
>>>
>>> 	Thanks for reading my rant and for K12LTSP...it's an awesome OS!
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Ken
>>>
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>>>
>>
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