Dive Brief:

• Cyberattacks and other malfunctions have been a running issue since Florida rolled out its online Florida Standards Assessment system last week. 
• At the beginning of the week students in grades 8, 9 and 10 were unable to sign into the test system. Later in the week students ran into a different problem: When they were able to sign in they were greeted by a blank screen with no test. State officials said the issues were caused by cyberattacks.
• The American Institutes for Research, which is the state's test provider, told the Orlando Sentinel that it believes the testing malfunctions have been taken care of and no student data has been "compromised." 

Dive Insight:

This is not the first time Florida has had online testing issues. Last April, technical difficulties stopped multiple Florida districts from accessing the state's old online test, called the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). That test, which was provided by Pearson, was reportedly down because of issue's with Pearson's hosting provider. 

The state is not alone. Similar issues have also been documented in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Indiana. 

In Illinois, fears of testing malfunctions had a number of districts electing to forgo computers and instead stick to paper-and-pencil exams on this year's spring assessments.