Giving Compass' Take:

• Some evidence suggests that students who took the NCES test may have been handicapped because they were not comfortable with the electronic format. 

• Are these concerns enough to doubt the validity of the findings? How can philanthropy help to ensure every student has enough computer experience to take a test online?

• Rural areas often struggle to get sufficient internet access for their students. Find out why we can't get rural America online. 

Every other year, the test, called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), is given to fourth and eighth graders in reading and math in all 50 states; it was conducted electronically this year for the first time.

Significant differences between students who took this year’s test on tablets and a small group who continued to take it on paper were found in about 1 out of every ten administrations of this year’s test, according to sources who discussed the results with officials from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which supervises the testing.

In their conversations with NCES officials, some state education leaders have expressed concern that high levels of poverty — often associated with less access to computers — and perhaps little to no history of online testing may have hurt students’ results. Some worried that NCES would not provide data detailing the effects of online testing, which would allow for apples-to-apples comparisons between states.

Peggy Carr, the acting commissioner, said data comparing tablet and paper results would not be included in the April 10 release of NAEP test outcomes and trends.

She said the number of students taking the tests on paper were too few to provide reliable findings about the effects of taking the test electronically. “It was a study,” she said. “It was not part of the reportable results. The sample sizes were not designed to report at a level that a statistical agency would be comfortable enough with. But it’s enough to study.”

Read the full article on electronic testing by David Cantor at The 74