Computer Problems Postpone SOL Testing

Technical difficulties caused the Alexandria City Public School system to postpone Standards of Learning tests scheduled to begin this week.

In a letter sent home on Tuesday afternoon with students, T.C. Williams Principal Suzanne Maxey described the difficulties faced by students as they attempted to complete the social studies SOLs.

The exams, which are taken on the student laptops, experienced “connectivity problems.” Maxey wrote that this is the first year students were allowed internet access outside of the school building and the problem stemmed from the “local content filter agent which was installed on the high school laptops.”

Although this “agent” was designed to create less traffic among student users, it had the opposite effect and the system acted as if it were “under attack.” This barred some students from accessing the site, while others were able to complete their exams. Technology officials at the school identified the problem and were “able to add a rule in the firewall” that would not block students from testing in the future.  

According to test proctors, about a quarter of the students were able to submit their tests on Monday. For those who successfully finished testing, the school will allow their tests to count or they have the option of doing a retake next Monday, June 6 with the rest of the student body.  Wednesday morning’s mathematics testing was not affected by the previous day’s problems.