It was reported this week that the Department of Public Instruction is exploring how to administer NC EOG and EOC exams remotely in the spring.

According to Mr. Hui’s report in the recent issue of the News & Observer, there are a lot of hurdles standing in the way of that happening just from a logistical point of view.

One can start to imagine what the other hurdles might be concerning the validity of the tests if given in this fashion.

Students are currently required to take state end-of-grade (EOG) and end-of-course (EOC) tests at school to meet federal testing security requirements that show the exams are valid and reliable. But state Department of Public Instruction officials said Wednesday they’re considering administering those state exams at home next spring using virtual proctoring.

Security would certainly be an issue. That’s a given.

Validity of the exams is always up for debate, but the fact that there has not been a definitive answer on what would happen for students who took entire EOC classes in the fall semester block and then have to wait months to be tested on it does not seem fair to those students.

And if anything has been shown in this pandemic, it is that the resources afforded to many students are not the resources afforded to all students as far as technology and connectivity are concerned.

For DPI to explore this option, it might want to look at other entities who have tried to administer standardized testing in the last few months.

The College Board comes to mind. They are the ones who administer the SAT’s as well as all of the AP tests.

SAT test administrations last spring (and many this fall) were cancelled for reasons of security, connectivity, and the inability to authentically show that testing integrity had not been compromised.

AP tests were still administered, but they were drastically altered and shortened, and the technical difficulties associated with many of the tests administered (hundreds of thousands) were very much in the forefront. Those AP tests that were given and scored for the last school year will always have asterisks attached to them even though they were given in the same time frame as regular AP tests would. College Board even produced copious amounts of videos and resources for students and teachers to use to prepare for the altered tests.

Oh, and all of the sample tests that could be used to give feedback.

The amount of energy, resources, and technical adjustments that College Board exhausted can only be imagined.

AND COLLEGE BOARD HAS A LOT MORE AT ITS DISPOSAL THAN NCDPI DOES.

It’s also hard to imagine how “virtual proctoring” would work in this type of situation.

We can’t even get enough proctors to help during testing when we don’t have pandemics.