The Indiana Department of Education has delayed a statewide readiness test for ISTEP+ — planned for today — until Feb. 12.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz told school administrators by email that the decision was made after the Department of Education listened to concerns from educators about a statewide readiness test Jan. 13 and its own concerns about the online system’s performance during that test.

The testing company CTB/McGraw-Hill has been directed to postpone the statewide readiness test until the new Test Delivery Client and iPad app have been released, Ritz said.

She said CTB/McGraw-Hill is using data from the Jan. 13 test to increase the transaction capacity of the cloud-based system and to conduct more load tests using simulated assessment traffic.

The ISTEP+ test is for students in third through eighth grades and is designed to measure student achievement in various subjects. The online portion of the test is scheduled to be given statewide in late April.