Knoxville Middle School students had a bit of a surprise Wednesday afternoon. Vice Principal Linda Abbott says that they were about a half-hour into a math portion of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills when the power went out. She explains that most testing rooms have windows, so the natural light was enough for them to continue. However, students in interior rooms had to stop testing for awhile, as the emergency lights were not sufficient enough for them to continue.
Abbott says she and principal Brian McNeil had to go to each room individually to explain the situation because their PA system had been knocked out as well.

Students eventually were given extra time when the power came back on to finish the test. Abbott says it’s tough to say how much of an impact the power outage could have had on testing scores. She doubts they will be re-taking the test as it could distort the integrity of scores if students take the exact same test shortly after taking it once.