Rochester schools won't have MCAs this year due to technology issues

ROCHESTER — Minnesota's seventh-largest school district won't administer state standardized testing this year after a possible cyberattack forced district officials to shut down its network earlier this month.

Rochester Public Schools officials said Monday in a news release they won't be able to hold Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) testing due to ongoing technology issues. More than 10,000 electronic devices alone need their passwords reset, and the district can't run testing software and video streaming for its 17,000-plus students under its current network.

The district looked into holding tests later than the early May period the state designated this year, but Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) officials aren't able to extend the testing window due to state technology and regulation, the release said. In addition, the district can't secure enough MCA paper copies in time.

"We didn't take this lightly at all," Rochester Superintendent Kent Pekel said.

The district hoped to use this year's MCA scores as a baseline for its ongoing strategic planning process. Pekel said the district is hoping to use other tests, including a pre-ACT test pilot at Century High School, to help improve curriculum.

It's very unusual for a district to not administer state standardized tests, and it's unclear how this will affect students or the MCA at the state level. A spokesperson for MDE said late Monday that state education officials were unavailable for comment.

Rochester schools are still recovering from what the district describes as a cybersecurity incident in early April. Thus far, the district's core systems are back online but district computers and tablets need to have their passwords reset, among other issues. It's unclear when the district will be fully operational.

Pekel declined to give further details about what happened to the district's IT infrastructure, but said some of the district's data was accessed. The district is working with third-party experts to investigate the incident and what systems were affected.

"We are fortunate to say that to this point, we have no knowledge of any data being used for any identity theft or financial impropriety," Pekel said. "But we continue to monitor it very closely. We hope to be able to say more as we get deeper into the analysis of what occurred."