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Students across New York were unable to log in to the digital platform for the state鈥檚 grades 3-8 math exam Wednesday morning, raising fresh questions about the transition to computer-based assessments.

The New York State Education Department told schools they could pause or delay the math tests, officials confirmed.

The issue affected schools across the state, including some in New York City where schools were expected to administer the exams sometime between April 28 and May 8.

鈥淢ore than 116,000 students tested without error this morning, with thousands more expected to complete testing later today,鈥� state Education Department spokesperson JP O鈥橦are wrote in a statement. 鈥淪ince the testing window opened, more than two million exams have been successfully submitted.鈥�

Officials declined to provide specific numbers of affected students. But O鈥橦are said it was a 鈥渓imited number.鈥�

Upon learning of the problem, O鈥橦are added, 鈥淣YSED immediately contacted our vendor, NWEA, to expeditiously address the issue.鈥�

State officials said schools can administer the exams at a later point during the window, which runs through May 15.

The city鈥檚 messaging to caregivers struck a somewhat different tone. A letter principals were encouraged to distribute said 鈥渕any鈥� students were unable to complete the test and 鈥渨e are pausing the administration of the Math exam and will reschedule once we receive the assurances we need that no additional disruptions will occur.鈥�

A message to principals encouraged them to postpone state testing scheduled for Thursday.

New York鈥檚 multi-year transition to computer-based tests has been by . This year鈥檚 problems come amid a against the proliferation of technology in schools, including the amount of time students spend on screens.

After , the state fully transitioned from paper-and-pencil tests to computer-based tests this spring. The grades 3-8 English language arts exams have already been administered.

Some principals began receiving notifications Wednesday morning from the city鈥檚 Education Department about the login problems with Nextera, the state鈥檚 testing platform.

鈥淲e are receiving a high volume of escalations about students having trouble logging into Nextera,鈥� city officials wrote in an email obtained by Chalkbeat. 鈥淚t is happening statewide.鈥� The message said schools could continue testing if students had already logged in, but should cancel testing for the day if students continued to have problems.

Officials at NWEA, the state鈥檚 testing vendor, said they 鈥渉ave directed all available internal resources鈥� to fixing the problem and hope to have the system running by Thursday.

鈥淭he cause of this has not yet been identified, which means the fix is also pending,鈥� Simona Beattie, a company spokesperson, said in a statement.

At one Brooklyn elementary school, students were unable to log in to start their exams for more than an hour but were eventually able to log in and complete the tests, according to the principal who spoke on condition of anonymity.

鈥淚鈥檓 sure there are going to be parents who feel like it鈥檚 not going to be the best picture of their child鈥檚 performance because of the way it happened today,鈥� the principal said. More broadly, the school leader wishes the state would keep paper and pencil tests, especially for younger students who have to 鈥渓earn a whole other set of skills鈥� to take them digitally.

At another Brooklyn school, a teacher proctoring the exam for a group of sixth graders with disabilities said that one of the seven students was able to log on. The rest spent two hours trying before the school allowed them to take a break and play basketball in the gym.

鈥淭hey were frustrated but understood there was nothing we could do,鈥� said the teacher, who requested anonymity since she was not authorized to speak. 鈥淭hey were so patient.鈥�

After their gym break, the students were able to log on and take the test, the teacher said, but she questioned the validity of the results.

鈥淵our purpose is to test them, it鈥檚 not to test them after two hours of testing their patience,鈥� she said.

City teachers union President Michael Mulgrew blasted the state Education Department in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

鈥淥nce again, students and educators were left scrambling because the state failed in its responsibility to hold its vendors and consultants accountable,鈥� he said.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .听

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