Large-scale TNReady issues that Tennessee officials feared was an apparent cyber attack this spring instead originated with an unauthorized change the state's vendor made to its systems.
The unauthorized change and subsequent issues mean the state will pay less for Questar's work, according to a Tennessee Department of Education news release.
"It appears, thankfully, that there was not an outside actor who attacked Questar’s data system," according to Sara Gast, education department spokeswoman, in the news release. "No student data was breached."
Gast said in the release that the issues that began on April 17 were the result of how Questar Assessment's systems stored information connected to its text-to-speech function.
She said Questar made an unauthorized change to text-to-speech, which had previously operated successfully during the state's fall administration.
“Questar’s internal and external investigations indicate that the source of the anomalous data pattern is believed to be the result of a configuration with the cache server," said Questar’s Chief Operating Officer Brad Baumgartner. "We have applied a configuration change and believe to have resolved the issue. We will continue to work with our internal technology team and external partners to validate this.”
Gast said the Tennessee Department of Education has informed Questar that the department is reducing the amount it will give the company for the spring online assessment administration by $2.5 million to account for the substandard performance.
The state offered the company a two-year, $30-million per year contract in 2016 after the state fired its previous vendor, which was unable to deliver online testing.
Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen announced last week that it will renew its contract with Questar for one more year due to how hard it will be to find a new vendor in time for the administration of the 2018-19 school year test.
The contract will be amended to ensure certain performance standards, she said. The contract will likely cost the state less overall.
McQueen said at the time the state will open up the bidding process for a new contract in the fall to take over the test in 2019-20 and beyond. A new contract is expected by next spring, she said.
Through the contract amendment, Questar is also required to undergo a third-party analysis of their technological capabilities.
This story will be updated. Check back for updates.
Reach Jason Gonzales at jagonzales@tennessean.com and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.