NEW YORK, N.Y. — A technical failure in the testing platform halted the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test across New York City on Saturday morning, and the city Department of Education sent students home from testing sites and promised a retest for anyone who could not finish.
In a letter to families, the department said the problem disrupted testing badly enough that it stopped the exam and dismissed students. The test is run by its vendor, Pearson, which reported the technical trouble. The department did not say how many students were affected or what went wrong. Last year, more than 26,000 eighth graders sat for the exam.
Students who started Saturday but could not complete the test will be rescheduled automatically. Families should look for the makeup date in MySchools, the online system the city uses for school admissions. Families of students who did finish but believe the session was disrupted can ask for a retest, and the department said taking the exam on a new date will not hurt a student’s score or admissions consideration.
Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said he had spoken with the vendor, which told him the problem was fixed, and he ordered a full review of the provider. He said testing would go ahead as planned on Sunday, Nov. 15. More sessions are on the calendar for Wednesday and next Saturday.
This is the first year the exam was designed to be computer adaptive, adjusting question difficulty based on how each student performs. The test moved from paper to computers last year. The city school board’s policy panel signed off in 2024 on a $17 million deal, running five years, for Pearson to give the exam on computers.
A group of Brooklyn officials, including Councilmember Susan Zhuang and Assemblymember William Colton, called for a thorough and transparent investigation and said the city remains responsible for the vendor it chose. The exam decides admission to eight of the city’s nine specialized high schools, including Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech.
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