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Teachers and parents tell board Formative testing platform undermines test integrity and usability
Summary
Multiple teachers and community members told the board the district's adoption of the Formative testing platform lacks basic summative features, fragments data, and has security and integrity gaps; callers said teachers were not adequately consulted before procurement.
Public commenters told the board that the district’s adoption of the Formative testing platform has created serious instructional and integrity problems. Juan Pablo Garcia said he warned the board against adopting Formative two years ago but that the board voted unanimously to purchase it for more than a quarter million dollars; he said the platform still lacks multi‑version bubble‑sheet support, fragments assessment data, and produces inefficient paper backups for testing.
Ryan Smith said the platform’s so‑called lockdown browser is insufficient, that he has observed multiple ways students can defeat test security, and that Formative’s paper‑backup features are poor. He urged the district to adopt an ed‑tech procurement process that meaningfully involves classroom teachers — the primary end users.
Trustees responded that they had heard the concerns and asked the superintendent and staff to look into the issues raised; one trustee explicitly asked administration to review teacher concerns about Formative. Commenters also raised questions about procurement transparency and whether additional payments were made post‑purchase to add requested features.
The district did not provide a technical evaluation in open session but pledged to investigate and report back. No formal board action on the platform was taken at the meeting.
