There are pending state mandates to move to online assessments in K-12 schools, especially in the 45 states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI). While the CCSSI mandates that all districts deliver online testing by the 2014-2015 school year, some states have already begun. Many school district IT personnel report that meeting the online testing mandate is one of their top priorities. In fact, a recent survey of 300 K-12 IT professionals conducted by CDW-G found that 83 percent of respondents noted that meeting the Common Core technology requirements for the online student assessment mandate and improved instruction was among their top three IT priorities — and 29 percent said it was the top IT priority. The impetus behind this transition is that online assessment is easier to deliver and is more secure than previous methods such as those using paper and pencil, making test delivery less time consuming and the results more accurate. The importance of online assessment results cannot be overemphasized as they will not only be used to measure student achievement and teacher effectiveness, but ongoing state funding depends on secure and stable test delivery.
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