Metro Nashville Public School’s (MNPS) teachers and students face widespread internet outages after returning from fall break.
Sean Braisted, MNPS’s chief communications officer, told The Tennessee Star, “We’ve experienced network traffic issues over the past few days, primarily linked to changes during a recent upgrade that has led to increased network saturation.”
Braisted added, “The situation has improved since Monday when there were district-wide outages, however, there are still intermittent issues being experienced primarily though not exclusively by students.”
District teachers, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed Braisted’s assessment.
“Things aren’t as bad as Monday, but service is definitely not reliable,” they told The Star, “It’s a major disruption. We are having to resort to doing things in a manner we haven’t done in years.”
Three years ago, MNPS used federal money related to the pandemic to supply every student with a personal laptop. Those laptops have replaced textbooks as the primary means of instruction. Teachers and students have become more reliant on technology to facilitate learning.
As a result of the internet outages, Teachers are being forced to print lesson plans and alter class assignments. The lack of internet access also means that teachers cannot access student work outside the school buildings.
The lack of internet access may make life difficult for Nashville’s public educators and students, but to some, there is a bright side.
Professional Educators of Tennessee Executive Director JC Bowman told The Star, “Thank goodness, this didn’t happen in the middle of testing season.”
In 2018, the Tennessee Department of Education attempted to switch to an online platform to administer the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP). The transition was not successful, and the TDOE returned to administering a paper test.
High school students resumed taking TCAP online in the 2021 – 2022 school year. This past year, sixth-graders through eighth-graders returned to online testing.
As for the current MNPS-related technology crisis, Braisted told The Star, “We appreciate the patience of staff and students as these fixes are being applied. We will continue to provide progress updates throughout the week while working to return to normal operations as quickly as possible.”
“Our Technology Services team has been working closely with our ISP and hardware vendors to identify problems and develop solutions,” Braisted said. ” Steps have been taken to address these issues, including adjustments to our perimeter network to improve traffic flow. We’re closely monitoring the situation and have contingency plans in place for equipment replacements if required.”
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TC Weber is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. He writes the blog Dad Gone Wild. Follow TC on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]. He’s the proud parent of two public school children and the spouse of a public school teacher.
