INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE Los Angeles Unified School District SUBJECT: SUMMARY OF DISTRICTWIDE READINESS TEST, FEBRUARY 19, 2015

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1 TO: FROM: ITR-OFFIC CORRSPODC Los Angeles Unified School District Members, Board of ducation Ramon C. Cortines, Superintendent Cynthia Lim, xecutive Director IFORMATIV March 2, 2015 SUBJCT: SUMMARY OF DISTRICTWID RADISS TST, FBRUARY 19, 2015 On Thursday, February 19, 2015, all schools in the District participated in a readiness test for the Smarter Balanced assessments. All schools were asked to mimic operational test conditions by having a class or classes in grades 3-8 and grade 11 access the Smarter Balanced Practice Tests between the hours of 9:00-11:00 a.m. The purpose of the readiness test was to identify any infrastructure issues that need to be addressed prior to the Smarter Balanced testing this spring by placing maximum stress on the District s technology infrastructure. The updated ipad app for the secure browser was not released until late January, leaving very little time for schools to download the software on the ipads prior to the readiness test. Therefore, schools were asked to access the Practice test without going through secure browser. Timeline of vents, February 19 Between 8:00am - 9:15am, users were not able to log into applications, such as MiSiS, or utilize schools' wireless networks. ITD technicians discovered a LAUSD network appliance (load balancer) failure. LAUSD's network is designed with certain business continuity features. A primary and secondary load balancer reside on the network. In the event of an unforeseen interruption in service on the primary appliance, as happened at 8am, the secondary appliance turns on and continues operations. Service was restored by 9:15am. The primary appliance has been repaired and put back into service. The average life expectancy of a load balancer is 5 years. However, both the primary and secondary appliances are over 12 years old. Upgraded replacement appliances have been purchased and are scheduled to be put into service over the next several weeks. Between 9:00 and 9:30 am, schools were not able to access the practice test on the state CAASPP.org website. Schools using ipads received an Access Denied error due to website programming changes by the state s contractor for Smarter Balanced assessments. LAUSD received confirmation from the California Department of ducation (CD) that the CAASPP Practice Test site was down. The system had received 135,000 concurrent hits which crashed the site.

2 At 9:30, help desk staff were asked to tell users to stop the readiness test and fill out the survey, rather than continuing to try to log on to the state website. Service was restored by 9:45. CD has confirmed that the servers for the secure browsers have larger capacity and can handle up to 500,000 concurrent users. The CD has since issued guidance to districts planning on stress tests to use the secure browser to access the practice and training tests. The CAASPP website has increased its capacity (due to what was learned from LAUSD s exercise) so that the number of testing administrators accessing the site during testing will not exceed the server capacity. Between 8:00am oon, internet access throughout the District was slow. The internet slowness was caused by the District's primary network router once the total District bandwidth utilization exceeded 10 Gbps, LAUSD engineers, with assistance from Cisco etwork's, the router's manufacturer, technical support, investigated and resolved the issue by adjusting the router's configuration. This is the first time that the District's overall internet bandwidth utilization had exceeded 10 Gbps. With the implemented configuration change, the District should not encounter internet slowness issues associated with the router going forward. Other factors contributing to the slowness of the internet were that the devices (tablets and laptops) that were "re-delivered" to schools were in various stages of software and application updates. Additional network bandwidth was required to facilitate updates. As such, network performance at schools and the District's total bandwidth utilization was severely impacted and schools experienced network slowness during this time. Currently, only 75% of schools' testing devices and 80% of schools one-to-one devices have been updated. We recommend that schools update the device operating systems and applications several days prior to the testing period. Figure 1 displays the time, in 15 minute intervals, that schools conducted the readiness test. More than 50% of the schools began the test at 9:00 am, resulting in maximum traffic at 9:00. 2

3 In spite of outage to the state website and the slowness of District connections, 65% of schools were able to get through to the practice test. However, most schools reported that other District applications were affected. early 80% reported that classrooms using the internet for instructional activities experienced connectivity issues during the readiness test. Of the 775 surveys analyzed, almost half of the issues encountered had to do with difficulty in connecting with the state CAASPP website. Other issues encountered had to do with problems with the practice test, (e.g., being able to advance to the next page or graphing tools within the test), LAUSD internet connections, problems with ipads not loading or freezing or receiving Access Denied errors and overall slow internet. Many schools reported frustration over the lack of connection and not being able to access the practice test. 3

4 Figure 4: Comments from Readiness Survey Please list any issues you encountered during the practice test. # of Comments Difficulty with CAASPP connection 369 Problems with Practice Test 89 Difficulty with LAUSD internet 86 Problem with ipads 76 Slow internet 68 Slowdown of internet for other applications 36 Intermittent connection 20 Problem with Access Point 15 Total Surveys analyzed 775 Most schools (67%) had between one and three classrooms participate in the practice test. Schools used a variety of devices for the readiness test. According to survey results, over 60,000 devices were used with the majority of the devices being ipads. Schools also used desktops, Chromebooks and laptops. 4

5 Schools used a combination of wired and wireless setups for devices. Over 50% of schools used wireless connections while 38% of schools used a combination of wired and wireless. Schools were asked to indicate when they plan to begin testing. After subtracting dates that were outside of the testing window range, 13% of schools (94 schools) indicated that they would begin testing the week of March 9, when the testing window opens. Another 10% (73 schools) plan to begin testing the week of March 16. The largest group of schools (30% or 210 schools) plan to begin testing the week of April 13. 5

6 To gauge the degree of technical support at school sites, the survey asked if schools had on-site technical support. Of the schools that responded, 40% indicated yes. ext Steps After Readiness Test The readiness test pointed out areas that need improvement and repair prior to the operational test this spring. ITD is working on resolving load balancer and router issues. ITD is continuing to work with schools that have limited bandwidth and is continuing to work on providing schools as much bandwidth as possible for testing. The table below lists 24 schools that still have limited bandwidth. The network team is working to identify temporary solutions for these schools. 6

7 Figure 10: Schools with Limited Bandwidth Site SC A L UCLID L FARMDAL L HOOVR L TRIITY L BCKFORD CHTR R ST BRAIARD L CAPISTRAO L CHADLR L SA FRADO L 18TH ST L HUTIGTO PARK L PARK AV L SA ATOIO LM COMMUITY MAG CHT SC RAYMOD AV L WARR L WODRLAD L GRIFFITH JOYR L City of Angels - 6th AV (closed C) City of Angels Branch: Woodland Hills City of Angels Branch: Venice VRGR HS RILY HS (Phoenix aca site) near wilson The readiness test also highlighted needed areas of improvement for the Student Testing Branch: 1. Development of a system to communicate to schools immediately to let them know of system outages or problems with District systems. Solutions include posting on the Student Testing website under known issues so that schools can access the most up to date information. We will also notify point of contacts in the ducational Service Centers to get the message out to schools. 2. Provide more in-depth training for help desk staff on the devices and testing applications to better support schools. 3. Hiring and training additional onsite technical support positions to assist schools during testing. It has been suggested that the District conduct an additional readiness test prior to the opening of the testing window on March 10. From the readiness test on February 19, we have learned important issues about District bandwidth and the state has learned about their capacity with the practice test. An additional readiness test is not feasible at this time due to several factors: S S S S W W W W XP 7

8 1. To give schools the experience of assigning test sessions using the secure browser, they could use the practice test or the newly released interim assessments. However, we were notified that the interim assessments will not be available March 6-9 which does not leave much time for another readiness test. 2. Many schools expressed frustration in having classrooms not being able to access the practice tests due to systems being down and the slow internet. The readiness test on February 19 was intended to place maximum stress on the District s bandwidth by having all users access the tests at the same time. During the operational test, not all schools will be testing at the same time. Conducting another readiness test would place additional burdens on school sites. 3. SC Superintendents are working with individual schools to download the secure browser and access the practice tests at times convenient for school sites. If there are additional questions, please contact me at (213) or at cynthia.lim@lausd.net. 8